Triwing
by MelodyPond123
Summary: After being released from the Institute in Manhattan by the Flock, a group of 3 recombinant teens find themselves struggling to survive on their own. Things get a lot worse for them when the Winchesters become suspicious. Maximum Ride OCs, both fandoms somewhat AU in terms of timescale, living characters and universe overlap.
1. Chapter 1: The Institute

I'm Solairis, a girl with wings and a you-look-at-me-wrong-and-I'll-strike attitude. With reason...

Anyway, this is how I came to live in the real world, thanks to a group of other recombinants who had the generosity to rescue me and my own sort of Flock. So thanks again, Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel. Iglesia also says we miss you, Total.

...

I was in my cage, lying still, hoping they wouldn't come again for us. My head hurt from lying on the hard floor, my stomach always next to empty, I was accustomed to a of routine misery and torture. And have I mentioned medical experiments? I lived the life of the most abused lab-rat. Yes, I am human-with a point zero, zero five percent's difference, which is avian. Okay, I've got wings-which are indeed quite functional.

Right now was what I called the wanting time, the early morning hours just after we woke up, which seemed to stretch endlessly, to the time before our meal was delivered and we had access to, uh, plumbing. We did try to avoid going in our cages-number two made the White Coats especially mad. But sometimes we couldn't help it. This was one of those times when I thought my insides would explode. I anticipated the angry look on the ugly man's face when the shorter-coated doctors came to clean out our cages and give us food. I didn't want another swollen blue mark to add to the welts on my back and limbs. Might I mention that all six of them were perpetually stiff from the lack of space to stretch out? I heard something outside in the computer room where the machines whirred endlessly. Then blinding light seared my retinas. Ouch. They were here. But what was that sound? These people's voices weren't like the White Coats', cruel and cold, or deep and malicious, like the Erasers'. High-pitched shrieks pierced my ears. A person, or more likely, a recombinant around my age. But why were they doing it so early?

As my eyes adjusted to the glare, I saw a group of kids, just as I'd anticipated. Yet with one exception: they weren't in cages or tied down to wheel chairs or gurneys. They were walking around, freely, their wings partly unfolded. What was going on? Were they some evil type of bird-people who were going to help the newly winged Erasers? This could be even worse than I had feared. Across the row, I spotted Gemini with his eyes glued on the strange, free-walking bird-kids. His look of wide-eyed terror expressed what words couldn't: what is going on, will we live?

"I don't want to hurt you," one of them said. She had curly, frizzy hair the color of the overcooked meat they sometimes served us. Another one of them walked around, seeming to reach out in front of him, groping for whatever was next. What was wrong with him, I wondered. His eyes seemed to stay still, completely dilated despite the glaring lights. A tall, dark older-looking boy walked in, and I stared at him, even more afraid now. He had a menacing presence. Then a girl with golden hair came through. She looked almost ready to cry, I could tell. But she didn't, almost like she couldn't. I jerked back as the strange older girl approached my cage. Through tangled knots of hair, I saw her look at me, studying my face.

"Fang," she murmured.

The dark guy looked at my cage and nodded slowly. His stare made me shiver, like the breath of an Eraser that tingles on your neck when they're ready to bite you. What did they want from us? Were they going to do some horrible test that involved eating radioactive dye? I hoped they didn't have any needles on them-or tazers. I'd been zapped several times, and did not look forward to another incident that involved such a stun gun.

What happened next made me go in my pants: they opened one of our cages. Nobody ever opened cages unless they had a tranquilizer gun in hand. Never. Or unless they had a gurney. You could forget being led by the hand. Too many recombinants had wreaked havoc on precious test-tubes and computer monitors when they jerked away. I scarcely dared to believe what was happening… They were letting us go? But that was impossible-

I knew the latter as soon as my cage door clicked open, a pale-haired girl with a teddy bear maneuvering the latches. In my mind, I felt a calm presence, almost as if she were singing a lullaby-but mentally. I am not going to hurt you.

She hadn't opened her mouth to speak. That scared me even more. Don't be afraid.

She was...talking-with her mind! She urged me to get up, to run away. Go away,...run...

The impulse was too strong. Without looking back, I unfolded my aching body, stretching my legs into a wide-open sprint. I was free.

In a euphoria, I skittered through the door, into the computer room, spitefully grinning as I pushed a bank of computers to the floor. Then there was a stampede of footsteps: other recombinants. Someone-the older boy with dark hair-grabbed me by he shoulder, heaving me onto his back. I would have screamed and fought, had I not known what he was doing. He was taking me away. I had the feeling my destination would be a much better place than the Institute.

We went through a door, and I got the shock of my life: it led to what I thought to be a giant Eraser's mouth-it smelled, was wet, and even had what looked like teeth. Or were those metal spikes?

I didn't know, having rarely been outside of the Institute. When I had gone outside, it had been a lot brighter...a whole lot brighter...was it the..sewer? Another thought touched my mind, and I realized it was the pale girl with the teddy bear. Yes. We're in the sewer, going outside. Max will take care of us. She always does.

Who are you? I wanted to scream through the pandemonium. But I didn't, unable to tell where the pale bird-girl was. As we neared the exit, I saw an angry-looking Eraser attack the older girl, tearing at her with his claws. I didn't think she'd be able to survive, seeing the blood drip from her head and arms. Still, they fought, and the dark boy-Fang-dropped me, telling me to run on my own. Was the girl fighting the Eraser Max, I wondered. Somehow, I knew it was she. Max. Then, there was a loud, earsplitting _crack_! The Eraser fell back, blood dripping from his claws, his skin paling rapidly. Dead.

Max stood, her chest falling and rising in what looked like sobs as she stared at the Eraser. It was so strange to see a person, so strong, so much older than I, stand, sobbing, so sad. Then the pale bird-girl swooped past me, her wings flashing-she was...flying.

I had wings...that meant...wait-I could fly. I sprinted down the tunnel, hearing the words of one of our White Coats echo: "He was my son! You killed your own brother!"

Footsteps echoed behind me as the tallest girl sprinted to catch up with us. She pushed me ahead of her, and we ran in tandem as I wondered what, exactly, was going on.

But did it matter? I was free-and so was Gemini. He was-well, at least I thought-my twin brother.

Free. As the shafts of sunlight became brighter, I saw we were leaving the sewer. The air above was fresh, sweet, like nothing I'd ever tasted: tinged with freedom. I called the other recombinants and Gemini, hoping they'd be there. I found Iglesia, a younger, dark-haired girl, whom had strange, featherless wings of leathery, gray skin. She beamed, revealing a set of wicked white teeth, similar to the Erasers'. (being part fruit-bat, hers were used to slice through whole carrots and shelled nuts, not ultra-rare steaks of who-knows-what.) Gemini waved to me, and I waved back, flapping my wings to see what I could do. Leaping as high as I could, I took a deep breath as I rose. It was a strange thing, staying aloft without falling as I always had when I jumped. Gemini and Iglesia looked at each other, saying something I couldn't hear until they both took off, soaring into the wind with me.


	2. Chapter 2

A few years later:

Iglesia smiled, and the kid at the fast food table across from ours let go a mighty screech: "Mooommmy! That girl's a VAMPIRE!"

I rolled my eyes as Gemini stalked off to the condiment bar: his take on conflict was avoid, avoid, avoid.

Mine was more like avoid if possible, then resolve, ASAP.

I replied to the terrified boy with a quick comeback that I'd rehearsed for this kind of episode, which happened frequently...

"She's not a vampire-she's just obsessed with that series of vampire books-Nighthunt -so she wears fake fangs all the time."

The kid wasn't all that satisfied, I saw, as he peered at us over his shoulder, a secretive expression twisting his face.

I felt an elbow slam my side, genetically enhanced bones contacting another mutant's flesh. Iglesia was never thrilled when I did my little speech. Her elbow never got any softer, either...

She hated the Nighthunt series, abhorring the stereotypes it flung upon the world's only winged mammals. On top of that, she was strictly vegan-save for the occasional tasty gnat or other insect/arachnid-a habit owed to her .52 percent Andean Fruit Bat genetics.

What else am I supposed to tell people, I wondered, giving Iglesia a pleading look. From over the ketchup dispenser, Gemini grinned ear to ear, his midnight blue eyes twinkling naughtily. He was a lackadaisical bird, truth be told. Except when Erasers and Flyboys were concerned. Then it was another story... Iglesia muttered something to him which I suspected wasn't quite g-rated. Tough Tomatoes, bat girl, I wanted to yell. But I didn't, due to the crowd of restaurant goers whom would question my actions, leading to yet more conflict-something I could well enough live without.

The memories of the Wanting Time were still fresh, what with our jaunt with the flock at Itex HQ in Germany...my face still bore the scars of a Max clone's fists...But we had lived, and escaped back to the states, many thanks to the Flock. I wished we could get back in touch, back with someone who understood us. But no such luck; the Flock was always on the move, and had their own problems. And we were too slow…

Iglesia is bat, Gemini and me raptor. She's a creature of the night, without air sacs, and a lot more diminuitive than we birdies, who happen to have an easier time in the daylight. She never slept well. Human genes mixed with bat ones don't quite jive right. She also gets this batty kind of satisfaction from sleeping off the day in guano filled barns, which considering her chronic sleep-deprivation, it's hard to say no to. Even though Gemini and me aren't so keen on that kind of thing, if you get my drift...

I had to go to the bathroom-really badly. Thus I gave Iglesia my customary warning glance and hand motion that was Triwing for 'your mouth had better stay closed while I'm gone; don't need any more meddling inquiries about long, pointy canines or the tendency to suck down ketchup instead of soda.'

Normally, she adhered to my policy, which made life easier. If we ever could dredge up the money, we'd make her a t-shirt that said 'Nighthunt Rocks! Wear Fangs!" That would save us a lot of breath...

I entered the single-stall restroom, doing a quick look-see for any security-or stupidity-cameras. With none to be found, I shucked off two layers of long-sleeved t-shirts, stretching out my wings. Oh, the joy... Today we'd been hitch-hiking: Iglesia's sleep patterns as of late had left her too drowsy for daytime flying, which meant the wings were retracted as tightly as possible. This, for us, is the same thing as wearing handcuffs for several hours at a time: uncomfortable, to say the least.

I shook out the tired joints, and sighing, slowly pulled them back in, savoring the cool air against my feathers. I paused for a moment, picturing what a land-bound nonmutant would think of seeing me now: an angel with raggedly cut auburn waves that skimmed the shoulders; dappled bay wings a good thirteen feet wide. I wasn't as lean as the Flock members; more compact, closer to five foot two than Max's five eight. But I packed a punch-quite literally, as several unlucky Erasers had learned over the last months. My raptor eyes found every blemish on the mirror's glass: a spotting exercise I enjoyed, along with the philosophy of the quicker you see it, the sooner you get away. My eyes were less hazel and more flecked olive drab, like a camo army blanket. A beaked nose completed my face of average humaness, masking the feral mutant that dwelled within.

I utilized the presence of the toilet, and then opened the door, ready to face whatever fate threw at me next.

Havoc met my eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it's been so very long since I updated. I kind of got stuck on what exactly I'd do to make this different from every other scene in Maximum Ride where recombinant characters escape the Institute/School/Itex, etc. Then a week or so ago, I got the idea, what the heck? Make it a crossover. As always, feel free to let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!

* * *

"Gemini!" Iglesia howled, shooing away the kid, who was now standing on her lap, hands in her face, trying to inspect her teeth. "Gemini! Get this thing off me!"

She gave the overzealous kid a shove, and he went tumbling from her lap, hitting the floor with a dull splat as he took he food on the table Iglesia had been seated at with him.

"Moooom!" The brat let up a vicious howl that made us recombinants cringe at its intensity, and the rest of the restaurant stare.

"Oh my gosh, honey," the woman came running to reclaim her felled mini-jerk. "What happened?"

"The VAMPIRE girl _pushed me_!" he howled at the top of his tiny, but surprisingly loud lungs.

The woman looked confused for a moment as she knelt, checking her son over for any obvious injuries, then frowned up at Iglesia, who gave a well-meaning smile, which flashed her pronounced canines. Although I knew she meant well, the effect I knew was coming just made me want to squeeze her head.

"Oh, my god, honey!" The woman gushed, grabbing her son in her arms as she turned away, eschewing a disgusted look over her shoulder at Iglesia as she retreated to a booth in the far corner of the eatery with her son.

"Leez!" I snapped using her nickname, racing over to her where I could speak more directly to her without announcing our debate to the whole of he restaurant, which was by now watching with rapt attention.

"How many times do I have to tell you, huh?! Do not smile in public—" I began my rant, only to break off when I saw a guy approaching us. I sized up the newcomer quickly; his expression was friendly beneath a mop of shaggy brown hair, his clothing rugged but well-worn. Still there was something that I didn't trust, maybe from the way he effortlessly towered over us, with whatever giant genes non-recombinant humans possess.

"What happened with that kid?" He asked, sending a furtive look over his shoulder towards where the woman and her obnoxious son had taken, where another man was talking with them in a low voice.

"No time for that, we're just going—" I said tightly, grabbing Iglesia's arm as I did so, nodding urgently towards the door, an expression Gemini noted from where he stood by the drink dispensers. He quickly grabbed his cup, racing to the doors before I even managed to get the slow-moving Iglesia out of the booth.

As we made it to the door, the same man came running, joined by the one who'd approached the kid and his mom.

Sensing something up, doubtless something I didn't want to wait to find out, I shouted, "Go!" Iglesia ducked a tired nod, breaking into an effortful sprint despite her sleep-deprived state as the three of us raced around to the back of the building, shucking off outerwear as we ran.

Stiff wings snapping open, we took running leaps hurling ourselves skywards.

Fighting a downdraft, I chanced a look down when I heard a yell.

"What the hell—" was all I heard before he wind snatched away the rest of the words.

There, below us, standing at the corner of the building, were the two men.

"Oh, crap," I breathed, motioning for Gemini and Iglesia to step it up a bit. "They're on to us….."

Although there was no way he could have heard me above the wind, Gemini nodded, glancing down as he followed my gaze.

We shared a look that didn't need words.

_This can only mean trouble…_

* * *

"Dude, what the heck was that?" The shorter of the two brothers sputtered from where they stood, shoulder to shoulder in the empty drive through lane of the restaurant.

"I dunno, Dean," the younger, taller of the two shrugged. "I mean, is it just me, or were they kids?"

"Kids or not they scared the crap out of that boy back there." Dean muttered, looking back over his shoulder at the restaurant from the sight of the rapidly disappearing winged figures that had taken off into the eastwards sky.

"So what do you want to do?" Sam sighed.

"Right now? I'm gonna finish my burger," Dean nodded, "And talk to that kid and his mom some more. See what's up."

"Alright," Sam assented. "I can jump on the wifi, see if there's any local lore…"

"Sounds good, buddy," Dean grunted, walking quickly back toward the doors to the restaurant, which he pushed open. He looked back at the table where the kid and his mom sat, huddled together, concerned expressions on their faces.

"Hey, sorry, I'm back," he murmured, moving towards them again.

"Are they gone?" the woman asked, her tone frightened.

"Yeah, they're gone." Dean nodded. "But if you can tell me again what exactly happened—"

"I'm sorry, but who are you, exactly?" She frowned, looking Dean over as she held her son close to her side in her arms.

"It's alright," Dean said, digging in his pocket for his wallet, which he pulled out, producing a badge. "I'm Agent Brookes. FBI. My partner and I have been investigating a string of happenings like what your son seems to have been through. So if you could tell me again exactly what happened, it would be very helpful in catching these criminals."

"OK," she sighed. "I'm Wanda Jones, and my son's Timothy, if you need to know that—" she began. "And my phone—"

"That's OK, right now just the details of the incident," Dean nodded.

"Oh, alright. Well, Timmy was over there watching the TV from the booth right there—" she pointed to a booth across from the one where the incident went down, "Talking to those kids while I was here taking a business call on my cell, and well, I thought everything was OK until he stared screaming. That girl or—_whatever it was_—if you can call it a girl—pushed him down, on the floor, believe it or not, for no reason at all, making that huge mess—" she indicated the wet-floor sign the staff had put out after scooping up the food and drink that had splattered there.

"Is he hurt, Ms. Jones?" Dean asked, his tone cool.

"No, I don't think so," Wanda replied, shaking her head. "Thank God. I mean, who knows what that sicko could have done? And…well, here's the strange part—when I looked up, she—it—whatever it is—was snarling. And—" She broke off shuddering. "I could've sworn, it had these…_fangs_…"

"Thank you," Dean said, mentally tabulating the possibilities at the mere mention of the word 'fangs'. "You've been very helpful..." he said as he moved away, ignoring the woman's confused look as she seemed to consider saying something, but thought better of it.

He moved back to his table, pleased to see his food had been left untouched in his brief absence. He sat down to finish his meal, staring absently at the empty seat across from him until Sam came back in with his laptop in hand.

"You're not going to believe this," he exclaimed as Dean dug in to his fries and burger. "But there seems to be a pattern here..."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: So I've been doing a lot of work on this for the past week or so, I've got a good bit more lined up already, just filling in gaps between scenes right now. I put in a few more major changes, incorporating some AU elements which will be more visible as the story progresses. Anyways, I hope you guys like it!

...Winchesters...

"Really?" Dean rejoined.

"Yeah, so, there's been sightings of kids like them, some of them violent—leaving bodies, too. Look at that," Sam said, turning his computer so Dean could see.

"Damn. They did that?" Dean exclaimed as he eyed the image from the police database Sam had been busy hacking. It was of a large man, lying dead in a pool of blood.

"Yeah, at least that's what the report says. Witnesses reported seeing a number of winged humanoid creatures fleeing the scene of the conflict. No shots were fired." Sam read.

"So much for looking for a case," Dean muttered. "One just found us."

….

We barely made it past the edge of town before Iglesia started losing altitude. Gemini and I followed closely, ready to dive if she started falling too fast. She wasn't as good a flier as we were, almost more of a coaster than anything, and the past several days' worth of travel had been particularly hard on her. We hadn't been able to find much to eat lately, either, which was hard enough on Gemini and I, but even worse for her. Her bat genes just didn't supply the same level of hardiness that our bird ones did.

As I edged up beside her, she made eye contact, motioning that she needed to land. I gave a thumbs up confirming I understood before duplicating the sign to Gemini, who nodded.

We began circling slowly downwards in a controlled spiral over an area which was mainly countryside. As we'd left town, we could see was actually pretty small, something we hadn't been able to tell on the hitched ride into town.

As we dropped lower and lower, I started scouting for a place to hide. An old barn on the back of a large, deserted-looking property caught my eye. I pointed to it, Gemini and Iglesia nodding as we angled down towards it together. We approached the treeline rapidly, wings flared to slow our descent. Looking down, I was alarmed to see Iglesia was descending faster than us other two- I sped up to try to get beside her to communicate, when I noticed her body was beginning to sag from the normal streamlined posture we held in the air, her wings no longer flapping but instead shakily straining to remain open…then, then I realized, they were folding.

"Iglesia!" I yelled, although the wind tore my words away.

I dove for her, grabbing her by the arms before she really fell. Her weight made me drop more than I'd have liked, but flaring my wings, fighting a losing battle with gravity. I managed to keep us both aloft long enough to slow our descent, tree-branches whipping past us before we crash-landed clumsily on the ground in front of the barn. Gemini landed beside us, stepping forward to hold her up as I tried to recover my own balance.

"Hey, Leeze?" I breathed, squeezing her hand where she leaned bodily on Gemini.

"Wh-what? I'm sorry, I guess I blacked out..." she muttered.

"No, it's OK," I replied quickly. "None of us have been eating well or sleeping well lately, it's just catching up with us right now. Why...why don't we see what we can do, get some sleep in here?" I suggested, pulling open one of the doors to the barn, which yielded with a squeak protest from the rusted hinges.

Gemini helped Iglesia walk to get inside, Iglesia collapsing in the corner on an old cut-off piece of treestump. "I can't go any further," she murmured, shaking her head. "I can't."

"it's alright Leez," I replied, "We all need rest. Although..." i trailed off, looking around to see a ladder that lead to two different levels of lofts, the lower of which appeared to have tarps and hay.

"If you can get up there, it looks a lot more comfortable..."

"Maybe in a few," she replied, shrugging.

"OK. We'll stay down here til then, I guess," I nodded, moving to shut the door.

...

It was sometime late in the night that I awoke to the sound of an engine, and the murmur of low voices. "Leez?" I asked quietly I touched her on the shoulder. She sat up quickly, murmuring, "Yeah?"

"There's somebody here. Can you see who it is?" I requested, hoping her night vision would give us an edge this once.

Iglesia crept to the window at the edge of the lower level loft we had moved to earlier to sleep. "Oh my god," she murmured, peering out. "It's them. From before, at the restaurant."

"Gemini, it's them…" I relayed the message, voice quiet but urgent as I crept over to wake him up.

"What, Riss? Those guys?" He asked, already sitting up, apparently having only been dozing.

"Yeah, that's what Leez said. We have to go—" I broke off as I heard them speaking from outside, straining to hear.

"You've got the shotgun?" One voice asked.

"Yeah, and a machete, you got yours, right? Better be ready for hell…"

"Oh my god," I breathed. "They have guns. We have to run. Now. Guys, let's split…if they try to follow us, we'll all meet up on the other side of town. Gemini, Leez, out the back. I'll take the front. Now, go!"

I said in a low tone, already breaking into a sprint up the ladder to get to the larger window on the third story of the barn.

..…Iglesia…...

Solairis rushed up the ladder to the upper loft, hurling herself out the window.

Gemini ran, ducking away out the window on the other side before she could stop him either

"Riss," Iglesia whispered, but it was too late, she was gone, the only sound her wings buffeting the air as she dove.

"Oh, crap…" Iglesia moaned to herself, making her way painstakingly up the ladder. Just jump, she thought. Just jump….

Looking down from the window, she screwed her eyes shut, diving. Her wings snapped open, wind roaring into them- she felt a sharp pain in the left one, and the entirety of it went limp, the joints refusing to do anything but fold in on themselves, which she reluctantly allowed, flapping furiously with the one that remained functional. "Oh, my god—" she wanted to scream but didn't dare verbalize the ragged shout that formed in her throat. She covered her face with her arms, trying to keep her feet down as she hit it, a bone-shuddering impact, which sent her to her knees.

"What the hell was that?!" A voice exclaimed, the shorter man from the diner, she realized, as she tried to roll over. Struggling to her feet, she started to run, but the man caught her quickly, pushing her up against the wall of the barn. He easily fended off a blow she tried to land, a vicious-looking machete in his other hand, which he pressed to her throat.

"Don't move, " the man commanded, the blade cold against her neck as she gulped, eyes wide as she stared into his face.

"Please," she whispered, shaking bodily as she extended her hands to show she was unarmed. "Please. I didn't do anything…"

"Maybe, maybe not, but you're coming with us, and then we'll see," he replied.

"No, I swear, I didn't—" she declared, her voice cracking with emotion. "I swear—"

"You can swear all you want, whatever you want. But you oughtta know, it doesn't mean a damn thing."

He took hold of her wrists, snapping handcuffs shut around them as he pinned them behind her back. She groaned, stomping on his foot as hard as she could, only in time to duck as he spun her around by the shoulder, frowning angrily. "You better not try that again, you sorry freak."

She gulped silently, nodding, as she held back tears.

He marched her towards the car, shouting "Sam," as they went.

"Get in," he commanded as he opened the trunk with one hand, the other gripping her shoulder tightly. She took the chance at his divided attention to try to wrench away— she got free for an instant before the man grabbed her by the back of her shirt, before she snatched away, the inertia throwing her to the ground where she scrambled back over dirt and sticks. He approached swiftly, machete reared back, his face deadly serious, which she could see in painstaking detail despite the darkness. "Now you either get up, slowly, or you're not getting up at all."

Iglesia nodded, sobbing, "No, no! I will. I will, don't, don't…_do that, please!_" Her eyes locked on the machete he carried, which the man kept raised, ready to strike as he grabbed her shoulder, pulling her to her feet as she still tried to skitter away.

"Won't have to if you freaking cooperate," he muttered as he shoved her back towards the car, gripping her shoulder tightly. "Oh my god, what do you want? Who are you? Do you work for them—" Iglesia sputtered, trembling in his grasp, but instead of replying, he shoved her ahead of him towards the trunk, where she tried to brace herself against the bumper of the car, trying not to let him force her in, but it was useless—he sheathed the bush knife, using both hands to force her in, slamming the lid shut above her.

"So, we got one of them," Dean shrugged starting the car. "But it came pretty quietly, considering. What the hell do you think it is? Some sort of weakling vampire with bat wings or something?"

"I don't know, Dean. We need to find out. But there's others that got away, too. We have to find them." Sam said, his tone concerned.

"Yeah. Speaking of, yknow if they're vampires they're gonna have a sort of family structure, right?"

"Yeah," Sam mused. "What, what if we left a ransom note, y'know…?"

…..Solairis...

Gemini and I had met at the far side of town, in the empty parking lot to the restaurant we'd initially been in. Except…Iglesia wasn't there. Blinding adrenaline had fueled the flight back.

We scrambled, searching for something, anything, that was there. I spotted a pale item—a piece of paper, I realized, shut in the door to the barn. I pulled it out, frowning as I strained to make out what, if anything, it said. But there was nothing, the moon was behind clouds, the darkness simply unyielding.

"Gemini?" I called, my voice rising with a question that I already knew wouldn't like the answer to. "I found a piece of paper. I can't read it but I think there's writing on it. Somebody left it in the door…" I swallowed hard, trying to

Gemini came behind me, the yellow beam of a flashlight dancing against the trees and the side of the barn. "Alright, Riss, lessee," he said, aiming it over my shoulder. It was a short, hastily written note in black ink on ripped out notebook paper.

_Meet us at the empty parking lot at the corner of fifth street and Mill road going back into town at noon tomorrow. No weapons, and don't tell anybody else if you want to see your friend again._

"Oh my god…." I murmured, hands shaking as they closed tightly around the already crumpled paper I held. "They have Leez," I breathed, feeling my throat tighten.

"Those guys from before? Are you sure? What do they want?!" Gemini exclaimed.  
"I don't know. But they have her, and they're not letting her go until we surrender to them…" I shuddered, feeling my face grow hot as tears threatened to escape.

"So what do you want to do?" Gemini asked, his tone cold. "I say we go kick ass-"

"No, don't you get it?! They'll hurt her!" I cut him off, shaking my head furiously. "I don't know. I just don't know—"

"Does it say anything else? Does it give you any idea where they are now?" Gemini asked.

"No, it doesn't say anything else. Just that…" I said shook my head, trying to keep my patience with all the questions. He couldn't read. I only could a little, myself. "The storm, the rain, the dark— whatever they were driving they had headlights off. You know we split, and then….then she was just gone…"

...


	5. Chapter 5

Between them, the brothers had managed to get her inside their hideout with minimal difficulty. She cowered at the threat of a machete, so they'd gotten her cuffed in a chair, ready to properly interrogate.

"What are you doing?!" the bat-girl snapped, trying to lash out at Sam, who ducked aside, letting the handcuffs they'd affixed to her seat do their job as they cut off her attempts to land a blow.

"Look, calm down, vamp-girl, or…whatever the hell you are," Dean muttered. "We need to talk, OK?"

"Vamp, like vampire?!" she burst out, her exclamation nearly a yell.

"Yeah, that's kind of what we're up to. Seeing what you are—"

Dean hefted a knife, which made her duck, trying to unfurl her wings, which rattled against the back of the chair as she thrashed around trying to get free.

"You freaks! What do you want?! Huh? I never hurt anyone—"

She clamored as he took an extra step back, "Dude, chill! If you pass this test then you get to live." He asserted.

"Oh my god you're going to kill me? You depraved freaks—"

She broke off as she saw Dean press the knife to his own arm, wincing as blood began to pour.

"What the heck's that for? If you want to kill me, you're doing a really crap job of it." She declared, gagging as she screwed her eyes shut.

"Hey, no, you need to look at it if you want to live," Dean instructed brusquely, watching as she gagged, looking for any signs of a hissing or protruding fangs of a vampire ready to feed.

"No!" she protested.

""I'm dead serious, you better look at me so I can tell you're not about to feed," Dean insisted, his tone steely.

"That's it, look at him," Sam coaxed, voice easy, which earned him the reward of her slowly opening her golden colored eyes, wincing as she gazed out at his brother's bloodied arm.

"Augh! Why the heck would I want to look at that?! Huh? It's disgusting! And just proof you're insane! You're willing to hurt yourselves to feed your delusions—Oh god, I—I think I'm gonna hurl-" she started to wretch as the brothers looked on in disbelief.

Sam moved quickly to her side, letting one of her hands free from the cuffs so she could move in her seat to vomit without getting any on herself.

"Hey, it's OK—" he began, tightening the other end of the cuffs around his own wrist as he spoke.

"Ugh, get away from me!" she choked out as she finished, throwing a weak punch which Sam caught easily with his free hand. He looked down now to see her face was streaked with tears,

"I'm sorry. Really sorry, but we thought you were a vampire. We had to make sure." Sam explained, tone apologetic.

"But why do you want to kill me?" She pleaded, coughing as she tried to get the long dark hair which had matted with sweat and vomit out of her face.

"We _don't_ want to kill you," Dean groaned, pressing his other hand to the wound he'd created, trying to staunch the bleeding. "So you're not a vampire. You get sick at the sight of blood. New theory, you're something else. Which, uh, by the way, what are you, exactly?"

"I'm not a vampire. Ugh, the ideas movies give people! I hate Night-hunt. I hate Twilight. I hate all of it! I'm not a monster, and neither are my friends. _Now let me go!"_ She yanked on the handcuffs, this time with a lot more force than she'd given the punch, so that the movement sent a jolt up Sam's arm.

"Hey, easy there," he admonished, putting a firm hand on her arm to keep her from doing it again.

"Please, let me go," she tried again, this time her voice lower. She sank back into the chair, shrinking from Sam's touch, her voice shaking.

"I'm so sorry," Sam mumbled again. "Dean—"

"How old are you, by the way?" Dean asked. "Because for a non-vampire running around on the loose, you look pretty damn young."

"I was eleven a few years ago," Iglesia replied hesitantly. "At least, that's what the band on my ankle said before I ripped it off."

"A band, on your ankle? What were you raised in a hospital or something?" Dean asked, tone incredulous.

"I wish. A hospital if it's like on TV they're supposed to be nice and take care of you. This was a lab. Where they experimented on us, no matter how much we screamed, how bad it hurt, they just kept going. They killed some of my friends when they outlived their usefulness for experiments, too," she returned, shaking her head, a look of fear dissolving her already dejected expression. "I thought we were free when Itex went down. But not anymore. Not if there's people like you trying to kill us."

"We don't want to kill you," Sam explained again. "We thought you were a vampire. We've met vampires, they're awful, and it's our job to make sure they don't kill people, which means we unfortunately have to kill some of them. What are you, though? I'm sorry but we have to know."

"I'm—" She broke off, voice shaking as she sobbed quietly for a moment.

"Well what is it, huh? If you're not vampire?" Dean scoffed.

"No," she rasped, which this time was more of a sob than anything.

"God, I'm so sorry," Sam tried again, at a loss for what else to say with the sobbing non-vampire batgirl in the chair. "Now I'd let you go but you can't try to escape, alright? And we really do need to know what you are and that you won't hurt anyone. Because we can't let you go until we know without a doubt."

"I won't, I swear, I won't," she murmured, leaning tiredly against the back of the chair she still sat in. "We never tried to make any trouble. We just got out of the institute, and we've been running ever since. There's not a day that goes by we don't deal with this, and a lot of it's me. I have the stupid fangs, I sleep during the day, I slow down Gemini and Solairis. They'd be OK if it wasn't for me. I couldn't be a raptor like them…"

"Raptor, huh?" Sam asked.

"Oh god, I shouldn't be telling you this! You could work for them—" She began to shake as she spoke.

"Relax," Sam said, his voice gentle as he stooped a bit to look her in the eye. "We don't work for anybody but ourselves, OK?"

She shook her head, her expression frightened.

"Nobody but ourselves? Damn right. Not Heaven and damn sure not for Hell. And I'm pretty sure whoever else you're worried we'd be working for aren't as hard to say no to as either of them, so we've got you covered on that." Dean smirked. "So really, try us. Whatever you have to say, long as you're not monsters, it's not gonna hurt your case any."

"Fine…we're—we're recombinants," she said again, haltingly.

"You're what?" Dean asked, his expression and tone betraying his puzzlement.

"It's what the whitecoats called it," she choked out.

"Whitecoats?" Sam asked, tone gentle.

"It's what we called _them_. The lab people, the people who tortured us. They were the ones that did this to us. We never asked for it! I was just born this way, I swear, I never asked for any of this—"

"Asked for what, though?" Dean pressed. "Because recombo-whatever? That doesn't mean a whole lot."

" I can't tell you. I've said too much. And I shouldn't trust you, we can't trust anyone—"

"Hey, hey, it's OK," Sam whispered, stooping to try to make direct eye contact with her, but she avoided his gaze, blinking back tears that pooled in her eyes.

"It's OK if you don't want to look at me, and I guess it's OK if you don't want to believe me, but I wish you would talk to us. If you really aren't hurting anybody, you can tell us what you are. It's actually in your best interest because we have an obligation to society to make sure nothing bad escapes us. And if in fact if somebody hurt you, to make you like this, maybe we can help."

She shook her head violently, still refusing to meet his gaze.

"Can you look at me? I promise I won't bite," Sam managed to make a small smile at this, despite how decidedly un-funny the situation was. He waited a few moments, still crouched in front of her, until she slowly met his gaze, her face twisted with a potent mixture fear and grief.

"See? Nothing's gonna happen. If somebody really hurt you, we need to know."

She nodded slowly, tears flowing freely down her face now, which she swiped at with the back of her hand. Sam's heart leapt a little as she began to speak.

"I—I guess," she said, her tone still fractured by the fear that seemed to run so deep it had imprinted itself in her voice itself.

"So what did recombinant mean?" Sam asked quietly, "You can tell me. I'm not here to hurt you. I promise."

"I-it means I have some fruit bat DNA in my genes. It's why I have wings, it's why I have fangs, and it's why everybody thinks I'm a vampire," she said at first slowly then more and more rapidly, the statements and emotion coming spilling out. "I hate the stares. Solairis and Gemini—they have wings, but they have bird DNA. No fangs. They can just hide their wings under clothes. They don't have stupid problems like forgetting not to smile, or open your mouth in public! I don't get to have it that easy. I get the crap end of the stick on genetics and we're all freaks to start with…" She trailed off, covering her mouth with her free hand, shaking her head slowly.

"Oh my god I can't believe I just told you that," she whispered, so low Sam could barely hear, beginning to rock frenetically where she sat. "I just told you—that's rule number one. Nobody can know—nobody can—"

"We're not just anybody, though," Sam smiled, nodding. "See? We're definitely not going to do anything. We don't want to, and we don't hurt kids."

"But earlier," she murmured, her face paling. "Earlier you were going to kill me. I know better than this, oh my god-"

"Yeah well, whatever the hell you are, you're not a vampire. And that fact saved your life. Fact is, we kill vampires because they kill people. But if you really don't do that, we don't need to kill you." Dean muttered.

"Dude," Sam snapped, "Not helping."

"What? S'true," Dean shrugged.

"Still do you think she needs to hear that?" Sam hissed, "After what she's been through? Don't you think tonight was more than enough already?"

"Yeah, sure. If she's a victim in this, that really freaking sucks," Dean said, turning from Sam to speak directly to Iglesia, "Hell, you're here, you're hearing this. So I might as well tell you right off. You've been through this much crap, you deserve to know the truth. OK? That's why I'm not sugarcoating it. So yeah, if you were a vampire, you' d have lost your head tonight. But you're not, and we don't work that way, we don't kill kids that don't pose a threat to humanity. So if you're telling the truth, damn, I'm sorry too, alright? But we did what we thought we had to. There's a hell of a lot of nasty stuff out there that wants to kill people, and it's our job to make sure it doesn't."

"He's not just lying?" Iglesia asked, her alarmed stare locking on Dean for a moment.

"My brother's just trying to get you to talk. The whole feelings thing, it's really annoying, patronizing, actually. And I think he's underestimating you. You're smart. You made it this far on your own. You can handle the truth, can't you? Well the truth is we don't know what you are and we don't know what to do with you, but if you keep going down this road, Sam's a lot more likely to give you a teddy bear than kill you." Dean smirked as he spoke, the candor bleeding over into the fraught room, her face relaxing a bit from the tight, critical frown as he finished.

"You're so weird," she shook her head, laughing a little. "Either you're the world's worst liars, or you really don't want to kill me."

"Oh, no, I'm a good liar when I have to be. And Sam? Sam's damn scary. You should see him without a soul. Lies like it's his native language." Dean laughed.

"Gee, thanks," Sam scowled. "I have it back now, though, and I—I really do care. If somebody did all that to you-"

"Yeah, of course he cares. That's just him. Why don't you throw the puppy dog eyes in too while you're at it, huh?"

"Oh, shut up," Sam rolled his eyes, but smiled good-naturedly.

"By the way, what was your name?" Dean asked.

"It doesn't mean I trust you, yknow. And if you go looking you won't find anything, there aren't any records. The facility was secret. But my friends call me Iglesia." Her gaze was searching as if some flicker of hope remained, but her tone was steely.

"Iglesia. Doesn't that mean church?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I picked my name because it was one of the first places we went that treated us well. A soup kitchen at a church in New Jersey, Igelsia de la Isla, they were so nice. They had hot food, and even let us spend the night in their shelter a couple nights. But we had to leave when they started asking us where our parents were…" Iglesia seemed to bask in the memory for a tiny moment before her face fell as she returned to the present.

"Oh, wow," Sam murmured, exchanging a look with Dean.

"Anyways I don't know why you care. So what? If you're not gonna kill me, what the heck do you want with me?" She muttered, wiping away the tracks of tears on her face as she spoke, the tough presence going up like a shield.


	6. Chapter 6

"Well actually, I do care," Sam said. "You seem to be telling the truth, and—"

He broke off at an impossibly loud gurgling that seemed to come from Iglesia.

"Dude, what the heck was that?" Dean scoffed.

"Uh…my stomach…I guess?" Iglesia offered, making a puzzled face.

"What've you been eating to make it that mad at you?" Dean quipped.

"Lately? Much of nothing," Iglesia replied, shrugging.

"And how much is that?" Sam pressed.

"Well, not that I can see why you'd care," she said slowly. "But we didn't get to finish eating yesterday. We don't usually get to eat fresh food, either, but Solairis found a 20, and we decided we'd have something good. Then that kid started bothering me…"

"You didn't get to eat since then?" Dean asked, his tone shifting to include something that sounded vaguely like concern.

"No. Solairis or G emini would have stopped by some dumpsters or something, but we were afraid we'd be spotted again. Yknow, before you showed up at the barn—"

"Look, how about we fix you something to eat?" Dean offered. "Although right now we only have apples because we've been busy doing other stuff than shopping, and Sam doesn't like normal road food," Dean made a face at his brother.

"Whatever," she muttered, shrugging.

"OK. I'll be right back," Dean nodded, ducking out the door.

"If I let you out of these, you aren't going to try to run, are you?" Sam asked as Dean disappeared out the door.

"Run where? My friends have no idea where I am, and I'm too tired to fly. Where am I going to go?" Iglesia shook her head.

"Oh, uh, ok…" Sam replied, unlocking the handcuff from her hand.

"Thanks," she muttered, her tone still somewhat bitter. Her expression, however, spelled satisfaction as she began stretching out her cramped arms as she was now able to.

"No problem. But stay right there, in your seat," Sam instructed.

She didn't reply but made a face at him.

Just then, Dean returned with a couple of large, red apples in hand, giving Sam a look as he realized she was free from the handcuffs.

"What? I figured if she tries to run we'll stop her anyhow," Sam shrugged. "She admits herself she doesn't have the strength right now to fly."

Shooting Sam another pointed 'you're-an-idiot' look, he gave one to her, which she took, staring at it longingly for a moment before saying, "How do I know you didn't do anything to it?"

"How about this, huh?" Dean asked, "I cut it up, we eat a piece or two, and you get the rest?"

She grunted a wordless measure of assent with a shrug, watching as he pulled out a pocketknife, far smaller than the one he'd used to cut himself to test her, and cut it into wedges. He took a piece himself, biting into it. "Now, I don't like apples too much, but I can tell you positively it's not poisoned or anything."

"Fine," she mumbled, "You'd be dirt stupid eating something you messed up." So saying, she snatched the rest where he held it out to her, raising a piece to her nose to smell it before shoving it into her mouth, followed quickly by the rest of the apple.

"Here's this one too then," Sam offered the other apple to her as she swallowed the last of the first one.

"Prove it's not got something in it," she commanded flatly.

"Fine," he said, handing it to Dean, who cut it into wedges quickly as he did the first, giving them back to Sam. "I guess I'll prove it to you this time." He took a slice eating it. "See? Nothing wrong with it."

"Good," she snapped as she hoarded them from him, her fangs gleaming as she smiled, practically inhaling the sliced fruit, she ate so quickly.

"You, uh, you really need more don't you?" Dean asked haltingly.

"I could eat an entire farm," she laughed. "Except I don't expect you to do anything about that—"

"Whether you expect it or not, since you're a human, there's no excuse for you not having enough to eat, yknow, since we've proven you're not a vampire." Dean said.

"Human," she snorted, crossing her arms. "You have no idea how much _easier_ you regular humans have it."

"No, I know it's a good thing, believe me you," Dean replied. "We've done the whole being-not-so-normal-humans thing, and it was not pretty."

"Wait…you…you're serious?"

"Yeah. For the record, I haven't lied to you once tonight. And hell yeah, we did, and it was bad. Really damn bad. So we know. Granted, it was a different sort of thing than yours, but wild guess your existence isn't too much fun either."

"Wow, how'd you guess?" she deadpanned, laughing a little again.

"Crazy idea, but we kinda did the whole kids-on-their-own thing too," Sam chuckled.

She shook her head, her expression growing dark again. "You're lying," she muttered. "Because that's just a little too much. You're trying to make me feel some sort of connection, but it's not gonna work. I ate the apples, OK? But I'm not gonna buy into all this—"

"But we did, though," Dean murmured. "I mean not completely on our own like you are, but…our dad coming up wasn't around the most."

"I don't—I don't want to do this," She muttered, shaking her head. "Won't you stop it? I don't want to listen to this. What are you going to do with me now? Huh? Because I kind of want to know."

"Well," Dean said, looking to Sam, who shrugged. "I think we made a mistake. Your friends are supposed to meet up with us in the morning, we kinda left them a note…"

"What are you going to do when they get here?" She asked, her voice edged in the worry that was creeping in on her.

"Nothing. We're not going to do anything but talk to them," Sam replied. "I know you don't believe us, not now, probably not ever, but we honestly had no idea you weren't a monster. We're not in it to hurt you. And I am really, really sorry for scaring you."

"Yeah, sure, that's great," she scoffed. "But you would have killed me if you hadn't seen otherwise."

"But we didn't. Look, you don't know crap about us, I get it, I wouldn't trust us either, but we actually know what the hell we're doing here. We've been hunting nasty sons of bitches for fifteen years now, OK? We don't do it because we like it, but damn if we'd have made it this long if we didn't know what the hell we were up against. And you happen to have crap luck that you look an awful lot like a vampire. So we had to verify you weren't. So you don't like that? Tough. It's just the facts." Dean declared, looking her dead in the eye. This time she didn't flinch away but accepted the stare, looking at him critically as if she could analyze his face to see if he was lying.

"Maybe so," she nodded, her voice growing a little more broken as she continued to speak. "But does that make it OK to hunt and kill people like me?"

"No, it doesn't," Sam replied, clearing his throat awkwardly. "It's the price we pay doing this kind of work. But don't think for a minute I think it's OK to make this kind of mistake."

"Then why do you do it, when you could easily do something that ends up with somebody, _somebody like me_, dead?"

"If we don't, it's worse. As hard as it can be, we've saved people—" Sam began.

"Not just 'people.' Freaking_ hundreds_ of people," Dean interrupted, "From monsters."

"Monsters. Here we go again. You think you're better. What, do you do it because you like being heroes?" she snorted, derision making her tone harsh.

"You think we're some kinda heroes? You think this is easy?" It was Dean's turn to scoff. "If by heroes you mean spending years in the FBI's top 50 most wanted, sure, we're some big damn heroes."

"Oh, that's great. So you do this even when the police are after you."

"If it helps you to know, then hear me out. We didn't get into this because we like hunting and killing things," Sam said quietly. "A demon killed our mom, and then my girlfriend and our dad. They tried to get inside of me, ever since I was little…they tried to end the world. I've tried to leave it behind. I've tried to be normal, but I can't. They won't let us. We aren't choosing to hunt and kill. We're doing it to survive."

"That's crazy—"

"Crazy? Most people would say a real-life batgirl is crazy," Dean cut in. "But this is our world. You don't like it, that's fine. But it's real, and the only reason the rest of society doesn't have to face it is because we make the sacrifices to manage it. So keep feeling superior to us. That's fine. But hunters like us are the reason you haven't met a demon."

"He's right, you know," Sam said, now turning to Dean. "Show her your arm."

"What? Why would I want to—" She protested.

"Fine," Dean grunted, rolling up his sleeve, holding out his forearm, where she reluctantly looked. She could see a strange hook-like symbol scorched into the skin, an angry red.

"What is _that_?" She murmured.

"It's the of Cain," Dean replied. "I took it so I could fight a demon, but it made me a demon too. Until Sam cured me. Now, I've been a monster. What you don't seem to get is by 'monster' we don't just mean not human. We mean blood-crazy, killing machines, OK? And that's what I was becoming before Sam stopped me."

"But he didn't kill you—"

"No, because with demons, sometimes there's another way, although it's dangerous and usually the human holding one dies anyhow. But with vampires? You can't cure a vampire once it's fully turned. It's irreversible once they've had human blood. That's why we thought we had to kill you, because if you were a fully turned vampire, there's no other way to stop you."

"But—"

"You're not, and we know that now." Sam nodded. "Look, if you're mad, you can say so. Take it out on me if you want to. We earned it."

He stood, towering over her as he spoke, watching her sadly.

For a moment she stared like a deer in headlights before jerking to action.

"You don't get it!" she shouted, anger making her voice shrill as she loosed a punch at him, which he took in the shoulder, where it landed loudly. He frowned slightly, but didn't shrink from it even as she landed another one, which became several in a flurry of punches. Dean looked at him eyebrows raised, but Sam shook his head wordlessly, conveying, 'let her. She needs this." Iglesia grabbed at his shirt, pulling at it, as if she could use her hold on it to pull him down, but this failing, she stopped mid-action, leaning weakly against his chest, sobbing. "Why doesn't anything make sense? Why aren't you fighting back?"

"Because," Sam said softly, "I don't want to hurt you. And there's been enough of that already."

Iglesia didn't reply, still clinging tightly to his shirt as she shook on her feet. "It's OK," Sam said quietly, squeezing her shoulders gently as he moved her slowly back towards where she'd been sitting.  
"It really is going to be OK."

She nodded, wiping back tears as she scraped her hair out of her face, which was still matted in places with vomit.

"I believe you."

…...

"OK, so," Dean murmured in a low voice, looking back through the open door at the batgirl who sat in the chair against the wall in the next room. "What exactly are you thinking of doing with this thing? Coz she's not quite the type of crap we usually kill."

"Definitely not," Sam declared, shaking his head.

"But there's others, you know we damn well better make sure her friends won't either," Dean finished for him, nodding.

"So what now, we wait for them to show?" Sam shrugged.

"Yeah. I guess so. I mean, three kids sticking together after escaping some wacked-out torture lab? I doubt they're gonna let one of their own disappear with hunters."

"Alright, I guess we'll meet with them where we said before…"

...


	7. Chapter 7

Reply to FreakPolice: Thanks for the review! I'm flattered. And your question about the brothers' outlaw status and the kids' response to it, you're right. I may just reread that scene and see what I can change to make it more in keeping with the kids' probable outlook on police, etc. And thanks. I don't remember exactly how I came up with the names or the personalities of my OCs besides wanting to do something with the mutants released from the institute (I wrote the first two chapters several years ago) but I try to treat my OCs like any other characters. Maybe that helps make them more tolerable. lol Less Mary Sue I guess? Thanks so much for the review. I'd started to think the last couple chapters were too long to hold peoples' attention, until you reviewed.

...…...

"Hey, how's it going?" Sam called as he approached where she sat.

She grunted a noncommittal answer, shrugging.

"Look, we talked it over, and we think it's best if we wait to meet your friends where we originally planned. The uh, the note we left says where."

"Of course you left a ransom note," Iglesia rolled her eyes. "You kidnapped me."

"Yeah."

"You didn't know then," She shook her head. "I know."

"I was gonna say, if you're still hungry, Dean went to get some food from the store. He should be back any minute now. If you come downstairs we can eat."

She stood quickly, nodding. They proceeded to the door, which Sam accidentally let go of too soon as she went through, so that it brushed against her wing.

She groaned, jerking away from it.

"Sorry," Sam flinched at the realization she was in pain. "What happened?"

"My wing," she muttered. "Something popped in it when I was trying to fly to get away, and…now, I can barely move it. And well, that didn't help either."

"It hurts, huh?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," she admitted grudgingly.

"What do you normally do when you get hurt?" Sam asked softly.

"Nothing. We can't go to normal doctors. They'd turn us into a freakshow, and they could have ties to the Institute. We…we fix it ourselves, best we can." She replied, shaking her head.

"Oh. Well, I've never seen an injured wing before, on a person at least," Sam mused, "But I could try looking at it if you want."

"You'd do that? Really?" Iglesia asked.

"Yeah, I would. If it's OK with you, I mean."

"Fine," She murmured, shaking her head. "It's not like I have a lot to lose, anyways…"

She turned her back to him so that he could see her wings, carefully opening her good one to full size. The other, though, she could barely extend at all before pain made her stop.

"That's amazing," Sam said, gaping in wonder, she saw, as she craned her neck to watch his reaction.

"Thanks, I guess."

"And that's the injured one?" Sam asked, gently reaching to pull open her left wing.

She sucked in a sharp breath, nodding. He let go of it at her display of discomfort, but she shook her head. "No. If you think you can help, go ahead. It's not going to heal right if the bones are out of place and, well, they tend to do that now and again. Gemini usually fixes it best he can, but…he's not here right now and, god, it hurts."

"You're sure?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Go ahead." Iglesia replied, bracing herself against the wall in front of her.

"I can't see what the bones are doing when it's folded," Sam warned.

"Do it," Iglesia urged.

"Alright," he replied, gingerly stretching open her hurt wing so that it was fully extended out to the side like the other. She groaned deeply, her body tensing as he did so.

"I'm sorry. Do you want me to stop?" He asked.

"No," she muttered through gritted teeth. "Put the joints back in place if you can…"

"Hey, I thought you were coming to eat," Dean called from the landing.

"We're—we're fine," Iglesia gasped.

"What the hell are you doing, Sam?" Dean pressed, coming up the rest of the stairs to see what was going on. "Playing at being a zoologist or vet or something?"

"Sort of," he muttered, not looking up from where he was working on studying the pattern of the joints in her wings. "I mean she hurt her wing, but it's a lot like an arm, actually. We've dealt with plenty of dislocations too. See? The bones in the other one are nice and straight but this one has swelling, and the elbow is out of place. If you could just hold the upper part there—" Sam motioned for Dean to hold the upper part of her wing still.

He complied, grabbing it cautiously. Even this gentle pressure on a relatively uninjured site made her tense with pain.

"You're sure?" Dean asked.

Iglesia nodded, trying to control her breathing pattern. Whether it actually made the pain any less she wasn't sure, but making tons of noise wasn't going to help things any.

"Great, hold it just like that while I get the elbow joint back in place," Sam replied. "Just to warn you, this is gonna hurt. A lot."

"OK," she breathed, bracing herself for what was coming, already fighting to stay still when Dean grabbed her wing to hold it still so Sam could manipulate the joint back in place.

"In 1, 2—" Sam counted. Then there was a sharp snap, and a flare of pain so intense it made her feel lightheaded.

"Well, I think that's it." She felt Sam's hand on her shoulder, realizing it was over.

Cautiously, she retracted her wings, feeling the left one ease into place without so much pain as before.

"Oh, my gosh. You fixed it," she exclaimed, as she turned to face them, suppressing the desire to hug Sam. "But how did you do that?"

"Well, like Sam was saying, we've had our share of broken arms and dislocated shoulders and crap," Dean shrugged.

"And we've had to take care of a lot of those ourselves," Sam nodded.

"Yeah, so, uh, you coming? Food's downstairs. I got you more apples, since you seem to like them." Dean said.

"God, that's amazing," Iglesia exclaimed, not bothering to hide her excitement as she raced down the stairs, the brothers watching for a moment, but not trying to stop her.

"Us, amazing, huh?" Dean scoffed in a low voice so that only Sam could hear as they followed her. "Not too many freaks say that about us."

….Solairis...

We had found the spot the note had indicated. It was noon, and we were circling when the car pulled into the abandoned lot. I watched, head spinning, as the two creeps and Iglesia got out. Watching, heart pounding in my throat, I indicated to Gemini that we should circle a bit lower.

They moved away from the car, towards the center of the lot, their eyes directed skywards.

If the creeps saw us first, they didn't indicate it. Instead, it was Leez who did.

"Gemini! Solairis!" she exclaimed, waving her arms over her head as she called our names. I did a double take when I thought I saw her…smiling? What? What's going on? I wondered. It has to be the angle…. I launched into a dive at the two men who stood by her side.

"Stop! It's OK," she shouted, stepping away from the creeps that were standing over her so that she was several yards away, waving her arms again. "Just come here!"

Frowning, I signaled for Gemini to level off, but nodded to stay up, which was just in case, since I was going to chance it and go down. I alighted onto the pavement, taking a few running steps as inertia straightened itself out.

Iglesia came running before I'd lost all the momentum, though, and caught me in a bear hug, as strong as I'd ever felt form her.

"Thank god!" I murmured, holding her tight for a moment, really not wanting to let go, although alarm bells were already going off in my head at the two guys who still loomed a few feet back.

"Are you OK? What the heck did they do to you?!" I heard myself snap as I released her from the hug, even though I really just wanted to yank her skywards, as if doing so would keep her safe, as if she wasn't too heavy to carry as it was, and too sleep deprived and weak to fly for herself.

"I'm OK, really I am," she nodded. "Look, I know they left you a note and it uh, it looked pretty bad, right?"

"You've got right," I snapped, pounding forwards a few footsteps until Iglesia stepped between me and the guys, who were now shifting uncomfortably, although for some reason still not reaching for weapons, still not tensing to fight. "They said we had to come if we wanted to see you again!" I blurted.

"Yeah, about that," the shorter of the guys said, stepping forwards, his hands raised in an 'I'm unarmed, I surrender,' shrug. "We were wrong. Completely wrong."

"You've got that right—" I ran towards him, throwing a punch, which would have connected solidly with his jaw, but, somehow, he was fast enough to stop it. He grabbed my arm, catching me before I could land it.

"You don't want to do that, kid," he said, tone dead serious.

"What makes you think that?" I snarked, jerking free, which he allowed without resistance, taking a couple steps back from me as if he was afraid of being in contact with me again. "What are you, scared?" I goaded, a satisfied smile forming on my lips. Messing with people was fun…

"I'm not your average guy, OK? Don't push it. But listen to your friend. We're here to talk right now, not fight."

"Really?! You _kidnapped_ her! And now for some reason you think she's gonna _defend _you?!" I shouted, recoiling angrily.

"They did," Iglesia replied. "But there's a little more to it than that."

"Look, we had no idea what you were. We fight monsters, so people with wings, especially bat wings and fangs? That's pretty high on our list of things to check out." The short guy said.

"They didn't hurt me, Riss," Igelsia said, looking me straight in the eye. "They were confused. Now, though, they actually want to help."

"I don't understand," I shook my head, trying to get through the aching desire to fight, to lash out, where nothing had to make sense but doling out pain and avoiding pain, and focus on Iglesia, as her statements began to make less and less sense. What could they have possibly done to make her talk like this, I wondered.

"You're thinking they're making me say this somehow, right?" Iglesia jumped ahead to the next thought I'd had. "Well they're not. They're actually kind of like us." She indicated the two men with a tilt of her head.

"Like us? How the heck are they remotely like us?!" I heard myself shout, the anger seeming to come out at Igleisa, although that wasn't what I'd intended. It was them…


	8. Chapter 8

"That's more for you to decide," the tall man said, clearing his throat like he felt uncomfortable. "The point is, we did not mean to cause you grief. Your group is something entirely different from what we'd thought. We're sorry, OK? And we want to help make up for it."

"How do you think you're gonna do that? And why the heck would you want to?" I asked, frowning as I realized the two brothers were moving closer.

"You didn't get to eat yesterday, did you?" the the tall guy asked.

"No. And I don't see—"

I jerked back as the shorter of the two moved yet closer, so close he was an arm's reach away—I jumped back a bit automatically, the years of abuse at the Institute that had built the instinct in screaming in my head. People getting that close, especially this sort of people, was never good.

He reached into his pocket, my body tensing to fight as he did so.

"Here," he said, looking at me to make eye contact. His face was relaxed; he was even smiling a little as he held his hand out, offering whatever was in it. My eyes widened, an entirely different sort of consternation gripping me as I saw the green and black of money. "Here's a hundred bucks. Get some food, eat until you can't eat anymore," he insisted, his tone infuriatingly casual.

Looking at him trying to see what his angle was, and failing to do so, I snatched it quickly, muttering, "Your loss. "

"Maybe so," the tall guy replied, "But we want you to have it."

"God you're so weird!" I exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Iglesia who was still right at my side. "What do they want? Huh? You're positive they didn't do anything—"

"No, they didn't," she said again. "I'm great. They even let me eat all their food. And I made them eat some of it to prove it wasn't tainted. I know you worry, but I'm not _dumb_. And they helped me get my wing back in place. It popped out again."

"They—they did?" I murmured, pausing to look from her face, which judging by the relaxed expression, was honestly about as happy as I'd seen her, then back at them, still just standing there, no weapons, no nothing, just…waiting…? And had they really helped her? Why?

"Yeah, based on what Iglesia said, we figure you needed some money," the shorter one said.

"I don't—" I managed to get the words out but broke off, a paralyzing uncertainty overwhelming me.

"Want to try this again, without the whole coming into a hostage situation bit?" The taller one suggested. "I'm Sam."

"I'm Dean," the shorter one supplied.

"That's nice," I muttered, mentally reeling. Why were they bothering? I stood dumbly wondering for a moment before I managed to scramble the brain cells together to make a crack of my own. "So I'm gonna be on my way now, if for some reason, you're just gonna let us go."

"Yeah, of course you can go. Although if you hang around, which I guess I understand if you don't want to, we could try to help you." Dean said.

"Stop saying that," I snapped, sending a harsh look their way.

"They really mean it, Riss," Iglesia said, her face hopeful. "Please, just try talking to them. They're not gonna do anything."

"Why should I believe that? And why would you—"

"They let me go. Think about it. They thought I was a vampire at first, but they realized they were wrong, and they're sorry. They aren't like the whitecoats. They aren't like anybody else we've met, besides maybe the Flock."

"Look, we know you've been through a hell of a lot," Dean tried again, but the fact that he had the brazenness to be speaking at all, this guy who had taken Iglesia, who'd left the horrible note, made my blood boil.

"Really, though?!" I snapped, cutting him off. "What do you think you know about us, huh?"

"I'm sorry Riss, I told them about us, I told them everything, but they seem—"

"You told them? How could you—" My mouth fell open for a moment before I started yelling at Igelsia. She winced, crossing her arms over her chest, shaking her head. She looked like she was about to say something when Dean interrupted her.

"Dude, don't yell at her," he called. "If anything we're the ones who you should be mad at, OK? We pretty much made her talk."

"What did you do to her?" I shouted, my face growing hot as I fought to retain some semblance of control, but felt even stupider for trying. Control? Control was a joke at this point, when they're doing everything they can to be insane, trying to get to me…

"Kinda played good-cop-bad-cop I guess," Dean nodded. "But beyond putting her in handcuffs, we never touched her. When she puked at the sight of blood, it was more than enough verification she's not a vampire."

"Before you get upset thinking about blood, it was Dean's," Sam indicated Dean, who held up his other arm, showing a cut on it.

"Let me get this straight. You made yourself bleed to see if she's a vampire, and then since she's obviously not, you sit around and interrogate her? What universe does this make sense in, exactly?" My exasperation poured out in a voice that rose to a yell.

"Ours," Sam sighed. "It's what we do. For what it's worth, we'd never met people with recombinant DNA before you guys, either."

"I don't care, and I don't want this," I snarled, throwing the money to the ground. "You can keep it, and your crappy explanations. Come on, Leez."

I took a few steps in the opposite direction, stopping when I realized Igelsia wasn't following me.

"What are you doing?! Come on!" The words came out sounding like an accusation.

"Where do you want to go, though?" Iglesia asked. "I can't fly right now. Last time it took weeks for my wing to heal. What are we gonna do, hide in the back of another pickup truck going who-knows-where? I know there's not much else we can do, but I'm sick of running, all the time, night and day. I never get to sleep. Not really. So I think you should give them a chance to talk. I know I've never been strong enough to fight, or really fly for that matter, but I can think for myself. And they've treated me well. Almost as well as that church that time. And considering how things started out, that says something."

"You're—you're saying you trust them?" I sputtered deflatedly.

"Yeah," Iglesia nodded. "I guess I am. I mean, it's about time we trusted somebody."

"If that's the issue, then why on earth are you trusting them?"

"They know, and they're not freaking out, OK? Think about it, when was the last time somebody saw our wings and didn't almost have a heart attack? Never, that's when. And they've fought people like the Institute and Itex. And they _won_."

"OK, ok, so they're not freaking out. But how do you know they're not planning something worse?"

"We're not, though. I'm sorry, we just want to help, but if that's too much you're free to go." Sam said.

"Are you coming then, Iglesia?" I asked, hyperaware of how broken my voice sounded. What she said next was like a kick in the gutt.

"I don't know. Why don't you get Gemini to come down? See what he thinks?" Iglesia asked.

"Fine," I muttered, giving the hand signal Gemini knew to watch for. He came swooping down beside me, landing quietly on the pavement.

"So what the heck's going on?" he asked. "Why are you just standing around down here?"

I sighed, looking at Iglesia, hoping she'd take the cue and explain it all to him. Whatever all this was… I wasn't even sure anymore, and uncertainty of that particular sort was not something I liked. And not something I wanted to have to explain, either.

"So uh, this is Sam and Dean," she said, the two men nodding when she called their names. "And they kinda thought I was a vampire."

"Oh my god! I knew it was going to happen someday! We'd meet vampire hunters," Gemini burst out. "But what did they do? What's going on now?"

"When we tested her it was pretty clear she wasn't," Sam nodded. "So, uh, then we got to talking, and—"

Sam broke off when Gemini kept staring at the pavement, stopping to grab the money I'd thrown down, exclaiming, "Dude, look! We can eat fresh food, for days, Riss!"

"Yeah, that's kinda the point," Dean grunted.

"Wait, you _gave_ this to us?" Gemini frowned, "Why?"

"Count it as us being sorry for the whole mistaking your friend for a vampire thing," Dean shrugged.

"I like food, don't get me wrong," Gemini scoffed, "But that's a crap way of saying sorry, even for a vampire hunter." He pocketed the money, smirking.

"Yeah, we're hunters. Except you're not vampires," Sam nodded.

"No, definitely not vampires. So like, you're not gonna try to kill us, so we don't have to deal with that." Gemini said, turning back to me. "So what're you waiting for, Riss? Let's go get something to eat!"

I shook my head. "I want to go too, but Leez doesn't…" The words died in my throat, something tight forming back there that made it almost hard to breathe.

"I can't fly right now, you know that," She murmured, shaking her head, tone apologetic. "I almost passed out last time. And now my wing…I'm sorry Riss, but I really can't fly."

It felt like a slap in the face, hearing that from her. I asked her to fly, I asked her to do this, and she did, except…I couldn't help her when she needed it. I couldn't help her when her own body failed her, when I was the one who pushed her to her limits. And here she was saying it. It was true, it shouldn't have felt like an open betrayal, but it did. And right now all I wanted to do was take off again where the wind would blow away all the questions for a few minutes…

"Maybe this is crazy, but we could take you to get something to eat," Sam offered. "I mean, if that's ok with you, Dean." he finished looking to his brother as if for permission, and then to us.

"Yeah, I guess this once," Dean nodded. "No feet in the seat though. I really am serious about that."

"No! No way in hell any of us are going anywhere with you," I snarled, lunging at the nearest of the two who were the source of our problems, the one who happened to be Dean.

He caught my arm as I swung for a blow, squeezing it in a manner that was a bit painful. I angrily tried to wrench free but this time he wouldn't let go, holding tight to my wrist, shock tempering my anger. Nobody but other mutants was this strong...

I saw out of the corner of my eye, Gemini start to approach, but Igelsia shook her head, hissing something to him.

I felt something inside me die a little when I realized he wasn't coming to help.

"I told you about that before. You don't want to fight me. I try really damn hard to keep control, but if you try to fight, I may lose that, and I don't want to go there. Not with anybody, but especially not with a kid like you." His tone, and gaze were serious.

"What are you talking about?!" I fairly shouted in his face as he let go of my arm. He took a couple steps back, still maintaining the hard stare he was giving me.

"It's a long story, one you don't really need to bother with, but I understand why you're acting like you are. You're taking care of your brother, and Iglesia, right? Well I did that my whole life, with Sam. But fighting me isn't the way to go with that. We aren't here to hurt you. Much the opposite, we actually want to help, and knowing how few those are for somebody in your position, that's an opportunity you should consider."

"I—I don't—" I muttered, shaking my head as if doing so would help clear the rapidly growing confusion. They want to help? He doesn't want to fight. But…_how_?

"Leez," I murmured. "What's going on? Why—why didn't you want Gemini to help me—" I gushed, turning to her, squeezing my eyes shut as I fought back tears. God, why was I so weak, I berated myself.

"If you have a problem with me, take it up with me," Gemini replied before Iglesia got around to speaking.

"No it's OK," Iglesia cut him off. "I didn't want him rushing in trying to fight because they really don't want to, and you guys making them have to? That's not going to help."

"What if they'd done something?!" I snapped angrily, "Would you have helped me then?!"

"Of course," They both said at once, Gemini coming closer to hug me.

"But they didn't," Iglesia said. "They're not like that," as she joined the hug too so that the three of us were a ridiculous knot of mutant teenagers standing intertwined for a moment.

"So let's get something to eat! I'm starving," Gemini declared as he let go.

"So, if you want to we'll take you," Dean suggested, car keys jangling in his hand, as he spoke.

"I don't—" I started, but Iglesia shook her head, saying, "I'm sorry Riss. I can't. I'm not doing this to be mean, but I don't see much choice but riding with them if we want to get out of here. I mean if they wanted to hurt me they'd have done it sooner. "

"I'm going with her, just in case," Gemini asserted. They followed the two brothers towards their car, my gut sinking.

"So, are you coming or what?" Dean asked, looking back at me as he stood by the driver's side door.

"Fine," I snapped, making myself go quickly towards the car, trying to block out the sense of doom that descended as I approached the aggressive-looking black vehicle. You're making sure they're OK, however stupid they are being right now, I told myself. You can't stop them. This is about making sure they're OK…

"For the record though, guys," I added as I climbed in the back beside Gemini and Iglesia, fighting the claustrophobic feeling that threatened to smother me, "This is the worst idea ever."

"Actually," Sam laughed from where he sat shotgun, "This is one of the better ones we've seen people have, believe it or not."

"Yeah, we've done plenty of stuff that's stupider ourselves," Dean grunted as he threw the car in reverse, turning it around to head back out onto the road.

"You're gonna be fine, though. We're heading back into town, what, three, four miles that way, there's a diner. We can all get something to eat there."

My stomach lurched as I stared out the window, wondering where they were really taking us, and just how hard it would be to fight them off once Iglesia and Gemini realized what was going on.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Sorry the update took forever and a day. I've had real life, muses go on vacation, and plot bunnies getting in the way. Anyway, I promise I haven't forgotten this story.

…Dean…

Dean glanced in the rearview at the three kids occupying the back seat of the Impala. The red-headed bird girl was practically shaking, he could see at a glance, but trying to hold it in.

He chuckled to himself at the familiar display of stoicism, but disguised it by clearing his throat. "So, uh," he murmured, "What all do you guys like to eat?" He wasn't entirely sure why he was even bothering to talk to them, when they were so obviously opposed, but it made sense in a way to try to stop the insane level of tension in the car from escalating. And food…he had to admit he was hungry too.

"Anything," Gemini declared enthusiastically. "Although not coming from the garbage is nice."

"As long as it's not meat it's OK," Iglesia supplied.

"Not meat?" Dean laughed openly this time. "What kinda food's that? Is that like your bat genes talking or something?"

Iglesia laughed, "Yeah."

"So what about you?" Sam asked the other bird-girl in the back seat, turning his head to make eye contact.

She didn't reply but Dean could see glancing in the rearview that she shrugged, frowning deeply as she stared stubbornly out the window.

"Solairis doesn't like cars," Gemini supplied awkwardly. "And she loves fries. And chili with cheese. Preferably together."

"Sounds like my kinda food," Dean said, enjoying the thought of ordering chili cheese fries for himself.

Solairis made a noise, something that sounded half like a laugh and half like a grunt. "That would be good right about now," she said in a voice so low it was nearly swallowed up by the lively roar of the engine.

"That's good, get whatever you want when we get there," Dean nodded, still wondering why exactly he'd gotten sucked into this. They're freaking mutant bird kids, he thought. In _my_ car. They better not be putting their feet all in the seat getting Baby dirty… Let alone…they have bird genes…. He stopped himself from thinking of what that would do to the seats. He glanced over his shoulder when he stopped at a stop sign, eyeing the activity in the back seat, which to his relief seemed relatively sedate.

"What?!" Solairis burst out. "What do you want? I'm in here, we're going wherever the heck you're taking us—"

"Right now? It's real simple. No feet in the seat. And if you're gonna get carsick, do it out the window, OK? And like we said a million times before, we're going to the diner. It's public, maybe you'll chill out a little there."

"You're really that worried about your stupid car?" Solairis huffed, her exclamation so grating Dean couldn't let it slide.

"Hey! Baby's been in my family for decades, OK, and besides that, she's freaking _gorgeous_. So, seriously. If you're gonna barf, do it out the window. That's all I ask, and that's not much, considering we didn't have to give you a ride anywhere, or offer to get you food. I mean that's not what we normally do."

"Yeah, I don't get that feeling," Solairis snarked back at him.

"We don't usually get the opportunity to," Sam said, his tone careful, in an effort Dean only could hope would get her to be quiet.

"So this really isn't some sort of serial-killer-y ploy?" Solairis asked. "Because you should know, we know how to fight. We know how to take care of ourselves, and we're not afraid to kick ass."

Really? Dean thought, scoffing at the suggestion. You couldn't even land a punch on me since I have the added strength from the Mark…. He wanted to say something, but thought better of it, realizing the sarcastic bird-girl in the back wasn't going to take well to suggestions to the contrary. Eyeing her in the rearview, he could see she was still abnormally tense, ready to run, or fly, or do whatever to get away at the slightest provocation.

"Nope, definitely not, and you won't need to do any of that. Look, just up ahead, diner's on the next block," Sam said quickly, tone light, as he shrugged, smiling into the back seat, which Dean saw in the rearview.

"It really is," Gemini exclaimed from where he sat in the middle. "I can almost smell it—"

"Come on, we're not close enough yet. That has to be your imagination," Iglesia laughed.

"Nope," Dean replied, shaking his head. "It's really that good. We ate here last night."

"Yeah, because you have the unyielding desire that if the stuff out there doesn't kill us, your diet will." Dean gave Sam a scornful eye roll at this, although he laughed as he did so.

"It's road food! How many times do I have to tell you?" Dean smirked, giving his brother a playful shove.

As Dean pulled the car into a parking spot in front of the diner, Sam turned to the kids, announcing, "Well, we're here."

"That we are," Dean grinned. "So, everybody out. Y'know, if you're not too busy still freaking out over the possibility we're evil serial killers and crap."

Dean was aware of a minor rummaging going on the back seat as the kids threw on ratty oversized windbreakers, which Dean realized, covered their wings.

"Look, there's food here, right?" Gemini laughed. "That's all I care about right now."

"Yeah, sure," Solairis muttered, her tone grating as she sent a look towards the brothers. "Food, if they don't put anything in it."

"You're never gonna believe us, are you?" Dean groaned. She scoffed at this, turning away as she exited the Impala. He wanted to do something, anything to either get away from her or to make her stop complaining. Or both. Preferably both… But then, he thought, then we won't have the chance to make sure they are what they say they are... He glanced at the batgirl, who looked pretty frail and gawky, even for a normal human of her age. Maybe it was bat genes, he thought. Puking at the sight of blood, and the utter lack of ability to hurt anyone made her no real concern of theirs. But the others… Sam would be fit to kill if he hurt them without good reason. And although he didn't quite admit it to himself, he didn't want to face the batgirl to explain, either. They had to keep them around long enough to make sure they weren't a threat, and if they were, decide what to do with them. They were just kids, and seemed reasonably human on a mental level. The girl thought she could fight, but was no match for him with the Mark. Without it, though… He wasn't sure he'd have been able stop her so easily, if at all. To a regular person, she had the potential to be downright lethal. Not that it bothered him, but he had to make sure it didn't end up being somebody else's problem.

"OK, so, all of you, let's go in," Dean muttered, shaking his head as the three kids all gaggled about, his eyes following the sullen birdkid who walked with her arms crossed tightly about her chest.

"Fine." She muttered back, following the brothers and her friends through the door.

"Welcome to Flo's," a waitress said. "How many of you are eating with us today?" She addressed the brothers.

"Five," they nodded.

"OK, right his way then," she replied, ushering them to a booth. The mutant teens slid in on one side, stacked against each other with plenty of room to spare, Dean realized. They were that thin…

"Do you need a minute to order?" The waitress asked.

"Yeah, probably not a bad idea," Sam replied.

"Alright, so, name of the game," Dean said. "Get what you want. Don't worry about it."

Once they'd ordered, Dean found himself regretting that.

"Good god," Dean muttered, as the waitress left, looking at Gemini who'd ordered last: three burgers two large fries and a drink like it was nothing at all.

"What? I'm hungry," Gemini replied, shrugging.

"Yeah, but…" Sam shook his head, breaking off with a grin. "How can a kid your size eat that much at once? Even _he_ doesn't." Sam nodded at Dean, who gave Sam a 'Really? You want to go there?' look.

"We have bird genes. Flying especially scorches through calories like nobody's business," Solairis replied flatly, staring staunchly at her hands which rested curled into fists on the table.

"Ok, but, damn, you oughtta pace yourselves a little," Dean said.

"Well, we really are pretty much starving. We hadn't eaten properly in days when you ran us off yesterday. And we haven't had access to this much food since…well, ever." Iglesia clarified, her tone matter-of-fact. "I mean I know you didn't mean to…but that cost us. It's the why you were able to catch me. I don't have the energy reserves they do. I started to pass out when we tried to fly, so we had to land at that barn…"

"Yeah, so thanks, for making our lives even more hellish than they already had to be," Solairis bit back, looking up now with anger in her face that made Dean want to yell at her.

"Dude, go ahead and make up for it now. We don't care, although it's gonna be one helluva bill." Dean shook his head, keeping his tone in check. Biting her head off wouldn't help, her reminded himself. "Point is we didn't know, and…" he let himself trail off, not entirely sure what he was going to say anymore without giving away the point to the trip.

"We really are sorry," Sam added. "Although we know, you don't have to believe us. And we don't expect you to. But if you'll let us help you, maybe we can begin to try to put a little more right."

"Honestly? I'm still stuck on the food," Gemini grinned. "You had me at that. Dumpster food doesn't taste the same."

"Look, you oughtta be able to enjoy it," Dean nodded to him, his feeling about this kid shifting towards the positive. There was something so open about him, and the honesty, he really did seem like just a hungry kid…well, with _wings_… Dean reminded himself, glancing at the oversize windbreaker Gemini wore. Under that were his enormous wings folded away.

"I agree," Iglesia declared brightly, nudging Solairis with her elbow as she smiled.

"I don't want them to touch our food," Solairis said grudgingly. "Although I guess we might as well eat…"

"Dude! We're not trying to poison you," Dean groaned. "If we were, why the hell would we go to all this trouble? In public, no less? If we wanted to kill you, there's a lot easier ways."

"Fine. Point taken," Solairis snapped.

"Riss. Really," Gemini practically begged, making what Dean was amused to identify as puppy eyes at his sister. "They seem OK. Cool, even. Y'know, for vampire hunters."

Dean and Sam laughed at this, exchanging looks.

"Thanks, kid," Dean smirked. "And, yeah, if you'd just chill out and this might be a little less of a crappy afternoon for all of us."

"Look, would hearing what we do help you any?" Sam offered.

Solairis tensed even more, if that was possible, shaking her head.

Iglesia and Gemini shrugged, shaking their head as if there was nothing more to say. Gemini speaking up. "Depends. I mean I think vampire hunting is cool and all, as long as you only get the really bad guys, but I don't think that's gonna make Riss any happier with you."

"I didn't mean that," Sam said quickly. "I meant about the people we save. Would that help?"

Solairis shook her head. "No. "


	10. Chapter 10

"OK, OK, what if…." Sam turned to Dean. "Do you think…what if we got them to meet Cas?" he murmured low enough only Dean could hear.

Dean quirked his shoulder in a shrug, not bothering to lower his voice. "Hell, can't hurt. You wanna call 'im or me?"

Sam gave him a look. "You know he only comes for you when you call. Never answers me. What, are you avoiding him or something?"

Dean shrugged again. "Whatever."

Gemini nudged Iglesia, chuckling. "What, is he his boyfriend?"

Iglesia giggled a little, elbowing Solairis. "I dunno."

"Say what?" Dean deadpanned, much to Sam's amusement, who burst out laughing.

"Nothing, nothing," Sam denied, trying to dial back the hilarity, although it didn't work—he was mostly just snorting rather than managing actual silence.

The kids all laughed at this; even Solairis cracked a small smile.

"Oh! She's not the ice queen after all," Dean grinned despite his discomfort with the vague but somehow still pointed suggestions Sam liked to throw around. Being teased by a younger brother was not terribly appropriate for a hunter in front of..well, whatever they were, Dean thought. But then, since when did he care about appropriate, anyhow? Sometimes he was a little surprised by how much of a monster Sam had been about jokes about him and Cas ever since they'd encountered those fangirls and their play. It completely wasn't like that, but…god would it ever get any _less_ uncomfortable?

"Alright, I'll call him, OK? I'm just gonna go where fewer people will stare, if ya don't mind…" Dean got up from the seat, walking off quickly to the men's room.

"Who's he going to call?" Solairis demanded of Sam as Dean walked off.

….

Inside he locked the door, sighing as he stared ceilingwards, "Hey, Cas. We've got a few questions for ya, man," he declared. The sound of wingflaps buffeted the air and Castiel was standing in front of him, somewhat tired-looking, and disheveled as always, but there nonetheless.

"Hello, Dean."

"Hey, we uh, we have a little bit of an interesting situation out there," Dean said.

"Is that so? And is that why we're in a bathroom?" Castiel asked, looking around the room shortly.

"Yeah, we've got a few teenagers who are….they claim mutant, but they have wings and they look kinda freaky, so if you can tell ufor sure and double check there's nothing weird in their souls, that'd be great. Plus, even if they're human, we're not too sure what to do with them. And uh, maybe meeting you, another freak with wings, yknow, might help?"

"Well I can already tell you there are no demons in the vicinity, and I don't feel any other creatures either, although if you need me to go look at them up close I suppose I can."

"Yeah. That'd be good," Dean grunted his approval as he unlocked the bathroom door, ushering Cas out ahead of him as they crossed the restaurant back to the table where Sam and the kids sat.

"So that's who did you call? Why from the bathroom if nothing funny's going on? And…wait, wait, wait! Is that him? Where the heck did he come from?!" Gemini asked, confusion on his face as Dean and Cas approached. Sam shook his head, and Deans shrugged, mumbling something about it being a 'Long story.' Meanwhile Gemini earned a tired look from Solairis, but then she glanced up at Cas and her face paled rapidly.

"Oh….my….god…" she mumbled, her eyes growing wide. She seemed to shake a little where she sat, her gaze frozen on Castiel where he paused a few feet from the table, Dean nearly bumping into him.

"What's wrong?" Sam was the first to ask.

"What is it Riss?" Gemini nudged her gently, but she didn't reply, just shaking her head slowly.

"Cas?" Dean prompted, his forehead wrinkling in concern. "What's up with her? And with you?"

"I'm…not entirely certain," Castiel replied, shaking his head.

"Hey, you two," Dean said suddenly, motioning to the recombinants who sat in the booth beside Solairis, "There's an arcade in the corner over there." He pointed to the games on the far side of the restaurant. "Why don't you go check out them out?"

"Riss? Is that OK?" Gemini spoke up quickly, excitement making him smile a little too brightly.

Solairis nodded stiffly, standing to let Iglesia out along with Gemini as they beat a path over to the games in the corner, snagging a handful of coins from Dean who wordlessly offered them from his pocket.

As they retreated, Dean sat down again beside Sam, nodding to Cas to sit too. He obliged, pulling up a free chair from another table to sit at the end of the table.

"So," Sam said in a calm voice, "Do you want to tell us what all this is about?"

Solairis nodded dumbly, screwing her eyes shut for a moment before she began.

"If you really hunt monsters," she said slowly, her voice so low Dean could barely hear her from across the table. "Have you ever seen one that looks like a person with eyes that turn black?"

"Yeah, why? Where have you seen a demon?" Dean asked, looking at Sam to see if he was paying attention. Sam nodded, turning to Solairis.

"There was one, at the institute that I saw. This one whitecoat…" She trailed off, her gaze growing vacant.

"Really, what happened? You can tell us," Sam offered, watching sadly as she shook a little where she sat.

"But—what—what is he?" Solairis pressed, turning to Castiel with a wild look in her eyes.

"I am an angel of the Lord," Castiel replied smoothly. "I know you're not some creature, and I've assured them of that."

"I know I'm not some….thing," Solairis said. "But you…you were there."

"There?" Cas, Dean and Sam all echoed.

"The whitecoat," she explained slowly. "There were a lot of bad ones, but that one was the worst. It did things even the others didn't. Then, one time, it had me alone in a procedure room, and it started saying all kinds of things, it was going to kill the rest of them, and it was going to kill me, and that all the other whitecoats were like it and were doing this just because they wanted us to suffer." She swallowed hard.

"So? What happened? And why do you know Cas?"

"It—it had a scalpel it was going to use, when I started screaming. Another whitecoat came running and tried to stop it." She began talking faster, as if she couldn't stop now that she had gotten going. "He let my hand free from the restraints, he was trying to get me to run, but it killed him with it. Ripped right through his neck. I got loose, I—I grabbed the nearest thing, the IV pole, and whacked him over the head as hard as I could, but the end broke off, blood going everywhere from his head, and he just stood there, smiling. I tried to run, but the door was locked because of the stupid security pad. I—I had the pole, I was at the door banging on it, when it came for me again. It knocked me over, was acting like it wanted to rip out my throat, when I stabbed up as hard as I could. It—It went through its leg, into its stomach, and out its shoulder. There was so much blood. It strained and I could hear the pole grating against bone as it—it pulled itself off of it like meat off a skewer. It pulled the pole out of its leg, and threw it aside laughing, starting to say something about how they made me, they made all of us, to torture, when _he _just…appeared and stabbed it to death with a sword." She pointed to Castiel. "And then he disappeared just like that. I was in seclusion for months after the whitecoats came running and saw me with the body. Apparently they didn't like my story. They were gonna kill me, but they got an order that they needed me for another experiment. At least, that's what the one nurse who would actually talk to me said."

"That's awful," Sam murmured, shaking his head.

Castiel was still staring at her, his gaze solemn. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember any of that. I wish I did, I wish I had done more, but…"

"So then if you're an angel, why didn't you help me?!" She snapped. "I was going to die. Because of trying to defend myself against it. That—that thing. You said it's a demon?"

"Yes, if it had black eyes, it was mostly likely a demon. I really am sorry," Castiel continued, "But I have not always been in control of myself. If this was a few years ago, there's the possibility I was working under what in colloquial terms would be referred to as mind control. I—there's lapses in my memory I still do not have back. I can only assume if you remember it being me, that this must have been one of those times."

"Mind control? So that's, that's your excuse?" Solairis sounded something between hurt and broken.

"Yeah, he was under mind control, alright," Dean cut in. "And then some…" A vague frown crossed his face as he looked back at Cas, the shadow of memories like ice in his veins.

"Well that's great. Mind control or not, you just left us there." She spat the words at Castiel, whose frown deepened. "If you claim to fight monsters, where were you? Or are_ we_ still monsters in your view?" Her tone turned to ice.

"Evil like that is the kind of thing we fight," Dean added quietly. "Not kids. Not things that don't hurt people. We fight monsters. Real monsters, like the ones that hurt you."


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Sorry it took so long to get the update in. In addition to my usual issues with writer's block and plot bunnies, my account has been a bitch with trying to do uploads.

In this chapter the story is also going solidly AU in the SPN world as well. Sorry I didn't have that noted, it's a recent development.

...

"Some good that does me now," She muttered.

"Look, I really, we wish we'd known. If we'd had any idea at all," Sam tried his turn now to console her, "We'd have ripped them open up one side and down the other. The, you said the 'institute', it wouldn't be there anymore. We don't—we don't let people do that sort of thing. People, monsters, demons, whatever. That's inexcusable. And, I'm really, really sorry we didn't know and we couldn't stop them. But if they were demons, or whatever, can you believe us when I tell you we're the good guys? We are _not_ out to get you. No matter how much people have mistreated you, we are not like that."

"It's already not there anymore," Solairis bit back. "The Flock released all of us recombinants they could, and we just…we ran. Then Itex finally fell. Not that I can see why you'd care—"

"I understand these events caused you great distress, and I truly regret that." Castiel observed. "I am capable of helping heal any injuries you may have incurred, if you—"

"No! I don't want any of you freaks touching me—"

"Ok, first of all we're not freaks, " Dean laughed, but his face turned serious again. "Second, you don't have to flip out on somebody for offering something to help you. We're not gonna force you to do anything. And Cas is right, he can help. Your friend—"

"Sister. As far as we're concerned, she's my sister," Solairis corrected coldly. "And you aren't going to mess with her. Or my brother."

"Whoah. If it was OK with her, I was going to say, Cas could try to heal her wing. Sam managed to set it earlier but I don't imagine it's still all that comfortable."

"No. I'm going—"

Solairis stood to move away, but Castiel was in front of her.

"I apologize for failing you and the others in your position when I had the chance to help you more," he said coolly. "However if you leave now you are losing a vital opportunity. Sam and Dean are good men. They mean to help you, something no one else is apt to do."

"Like you have to tell me that," she said, giving the angel a shove.

"Stop." Castiel commanded, and for some reason, she did.

She looked up to make eye contact with the angel, dread twisting her expression.

"Please, think this over," he added more softly, moving back to his seat. "We are not out to harm you. And I will gladly heal your sister if she so wishes. Although I suppose you'd prefer a demonstration of some sort."

"What do you mean 'heal' her? And if you're gonna _demonstrate_, or whatever the heck you want to do, you aren't doing it on me or them." She said defensively, jerking a thumb over her shoulder in the direction of Iglesia and Gemini.

"Uh, Riss?" Solairis looked up to see Gemini and Iglesia approaching their seats.

"Oh, god, what now?" She muttered.

"I trust them," was the first thing out of Iglesia's mouth. "And he's right. My wing does hurt. We couldn't help but hear. Or, yknow, I couldn't." Iglesia gave a fanged smile, referencing one of her bat traits.

Solairis frowned fiercely, shaking her head. "Well I don't," she added.

"Wait, we can show you," Sam spoke up. "Don't you have that cut on your arm from testing her, Dean?"

Solairis didn't reply, rather muttering under her breath in disbelief.

"What? Yeah," Dean said, rolling up his sleeve. He raised his arm to show the kids the wound.

"So, Cas, if you'd show them…"

Castiel nodded, touching Dean's forehead with two fingers, his eyes glowing for a moment. Then he dropped his hand from Dean's head, and Dean lifted his arm again to show where the wound had been. It was gone, as if it had never existed to start with.

"Oh my god!" Gemini shrieked. "He really—you really—how'd you do that?!"

"They already said he's an angel, yknow," Iglesia elbowed Gemini from where she stood beside him.

"Fine, fine. Still, it's really freaking cool!" He rejoined, motioning for Solairis to move over. Solairis did so, allowing him to take a seat.

"What do you say, Riss? I'm going to let him fix my wing. Although I'd prefer if you were OK with it," Iglesia said.

Solairis just shook her head. "No. You don't care what I think apparently, so—"

"Dude, that's not true," Gemini cut her off, shaking his head adamantly. "We care, a lot. Why do you think she's asking you, you big feathery moron?"

"I don't know," Solairis hissed. "And I'm not a moron. I kept you alive so far, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. It's a, uhm, figure of….figure of something." Gemini managed feebly.

Sam failed to contain a small chuckle. "Speech. Figure of speech."

"Yeah, that," Gemini declared sheepishly.

"So…Cas, if that's your name?" Iglesia said shyly, "I—I wouldn't mind if you'd help me."

"That will not be a problem," the angel replied, giving a small smile.

"So what do you have to do? Do you need to see it, can you heal a wing, or—" Gemini gushed, fascination apparent in his voice.

Solairis watched silently, her eyes narrowed in a protective glare.

Castiel shook his head, touching Iglesia's forehead briefly. When he lowered his hand, she made a face of concentration, then a grin grew slowly. "Wow. I can't open them in here, of course, but—it feels like it's completely healed!"

"Really?" Solairis frowned. "I asked you not to, I—"

"Look, Riss," Dean spoke up, using the nickname the kids did for her. "We are not out to get you. If you want to you can walk out that door and never see us again. But there's crap out there, crap worse than you can imagine, that you might run into. Vampires, rugaru, werewolves, demons—" he gave her a stern look, waiting for her to acknowledge his statement. She gave a small nod, frowning at the table. And there's others like us out there that hunt those things. They're not bad folks necessarily, but if they run up on you in another incident like the one we saw, or one worse, well I don't know what they'd do. Out there on your own you're waiting for something like that to happen. You're honestly luck it was us that you ran into, not someone else."

"Hey, sorry it took so long," the bubbly voice of the waitress called as she approached the table, two enormous trays in hand that were loaded down with food.

When the waitress put down the tray, Gemini's eyes widened until it looked like they were going to drop out of his head. "Oh my god. That's the most fantastic thing I've ever seen," he whispered as if in awe.

"Poor kid," Dean mumbled to Sam as Cas and the kids shuffled around to make room for everyone to get seated and take their food. "They really have it rough."

Sam nodded wordlessly, taking his plate.

"By the way, can I get you anything?" The waitress asked Castiel.

"Coffee is all," Castiel replied.

"Alright, I'll have that right out."

Everyone settled in to eating, a tense silence falling. The kids gobbled their food ravenously, as if they were afraid it would grow legs and run away from them.

Castiel mostly just watched the others eat until Dean handed him a napkin with some fries on it, which he took with a smile. Although he didn't have to eat, it didn't mean he didn't enjoy it sometimes.

Gemini paused in eating long enough to speak, although when he did his mouth was still half full, prompting Solairis to make a face at him in reprimand. "I really really love this food. Hot food is the best. And no, before either of you ask, just because I have a lot and Dean is sharing with Cas does not mean you get to have any of mine. Coz for once we all have our own. You guys," Gemini said, raising his glass in towards the brothers, who looked at each other and his glass before returning the gesture, "Are the best ever. I mean, you even share your food."

Iglesia laughed at this. "They don't go hungry like we do, y'know."

"Yeah, but…" Solairis watched as Castiel ate a fry. "Maybe they do mean well."

Sam smiled at seeing the kids seem so happy; hell, if one ignored the content of their speech, the situation seemed almost normal.

"So, how would you guys feel about maybe…going with us?" Sam offered.

Solairis immediately tightened. Gemini shrugged, and Iglesia looked relieved.

"What do you say, Leez?" Gemini asked.

"They're good, and they mean it," Iglesia declared firmly. "I trust them."

"OK then. That's my answer too," he said.

"Although you're hunters. I mean, what, will we do? Are you gonna teach us how to kill vampires?"

"I don't think so, kid," Dean shook his head. "Maybe how to fend off spirits with salt, just in case, though."

"Mmm, OK," he said.

"So what about you? What do you think?" Dean addressed Solairis.

"I…." She began slowly, shaking her head. "I don't know. You're, you're right, though. We are vulnerable. I've tried so hard, though—"

"Yeah, but now you don't have to do it all on your own, see," Dean

offered.

"I…" She looked like she was about to cry, Dean noted.

"Riss, it's OK," Iglesia and Gemini assured her near simultaneously.

"Look, we mean this as a good thing," Sam assured.

"It's gonna be OK, Riss, I promise," Iglesia whispered. She gave a sad smile through her tears as they hugged.

"If…if we went with you, what would happen?" Solairis asked hesitantly.

"Well…we'll find you somewhere to stay, for one," Dean mused aloud.

"Really?" Cynicism was leeching into Solairis' tone again.

"Yeah. Not like, nothing official," Sam added placatingly. "I know it's important to you to be in charge, and wherever you go you will be. OK?"

Solairis nodded coolly. "Where do you live?"

"We have a sort of HQ in Lebanon, Kansas," Dean said. "It's the closest thing to home we've had in, well, forever."

"I'm gonna go make a few calls," Dean said. "Don't cut up too bad on Sam."

Gemini smiled devilishly at Iglesia while Solairis glared at them sternly. Dean chuckled under his breath at them as he got up and walked away from the table.

He went outside, sitting on the bench beside a newspaper stand on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, and pulled out his phone.

He dialed the familiar numbers that he could've done with his eyes closed, the number to the closest thing he'd had to a father in 10 years, and in some ways, a man who was more of a father to him than his own.

Bobby picked up after the second ring.

"Hello."

"Hey, uh, Bobby?" Dean asked.

"Hey, Dean. So what you idjits up to?" Came the gruff but affectionate reply.

"I, uh, we kinda need to call in a favor."

"Ok, shoot." Bobby said.

"Well, uh, we found some kids, and… they're on their own, and uh, the thing is, they're kind of in a unique position."

"What exactly's that sposed to mean?"

"They're not…exactly completely human." Dean said, wishing he'd said anything else at the moment.

"What the heck, boy? They better not be some sorta monsters or crap!" Bobby bit back, Dean frowning into the phone.

"No, no. We tested the crap out of them. They look like monsters, but they're mentally normal humans. Cas verified it for us. At least, as normal as anybody who's been through what they have can be. They were _genetically engineered_. Apparently it's some of the freakish crap the demons pulled. We ran into them when they got into a scuffle. It wasn't their fault, but the thing is, they're gonna get in a lot of trouble if we don't do something, but we can't exactly drop them off at the county home, like, hey, here's some mutant teenagers for ya…"

"That's OK, but how many are there exactly?"

"Yeah, that's the thing. There's three of them. And they're tight. You can't separate them."

"So what, are you tellin' me they need somewhere to live?" Bobby asked.

"Uh…yeah. Kind of. We can't exactly leave them in the bunker, yknow. Teenagers free to mess with all sorts of occult stuff? We don't know what else to freaking do with them, Bobby." Dean sighed. "I know it's a lot, it's just…"

"Alright then. Bring 'em over. I won't say one way or another until I see them for myself," Bobby declared irritably.

"Bobby…thanks."

"You better not be going soft on me now, you hear? And where are ya, when should I be expecting all of you?"

"Well, right now we're in Chillicothe, Ohio," Dean said. "So, according to Sam's app, about 13 hours. Although the kids may want to stop somewhere for the night. So either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Not sure yet."

"Good lord, boy, you're already calling them 'the kids.'" Bobby laughed. "What's got into you?"

"Nothing! They're just, they're kids, mutant teenage bird-and-bat-kids, I dunno. Kids. That's what they are. It's not like I'm getting attached or anything." Dean said defensively.

"Alright, boy. I'm just pullin' your leg a little," Bobby joked. "Ease up. An' keep an eye. Teenagers 'll keep you on your toes. I should know, I practically raised you two."

"Thanks. I'll call you again when we get closer and let you know what we end up doing."

"OK. Good to hear from ya now and again."

"Yeah, same for you, Bobby," Dean murmured, ending the call.

He went back in the diner, turning to Sam and the kids, who were by now finished with their food, even Gemini, and his three burgers and double order of fries.


	12. Chapter 12

"So," Dean offered, prompting the five at the table to look up.

"What? You have some sort of _arrangement _for us?" Solairis asked accusingly.

"No, not exactly," Dean placated. "Look, for the five millionth time, we're in this to help you. A favor, I guess you could call it. If at any point you want to get out of here, you're free to go. Now maybe you don't believe me, but I think they do. But maybe you should give them the chance to decide for themselves." Dean gestured to Gemini Iglesia, whose expression was hopeful.

"Yeah, so who is it exactly?" Gemini asked expectantly.

"You'll see," Dean replied. "His name's Bobby. He's the closest thing Sam and I have to a dad."

"A dad?" Iglesia asked. "We never knew our parents. I don't, I don't even know if we had them. Like, as awful as they were the whitecoats, they could've, like, grown us in test tubes or something."

"If we ever had any I don't think I'd want to know them." Solairis replied dourly. "If they let _them_ take us, do this to us, why should we care?"

"This isn't really any of my business," Sam interjected quietly, "But if maybe your parents did care, but weren't given a choice. A demon manipulated our entire family, and our parents couldn't do anything about it. Our mom died, trying to protect me. So…maybe it wasn't all their fault. You don't know. I mean, I know it's not much good now, but…maybe there is somebody out there who cared. Even if you can't find them."

Iglesia looked at Solairis, who glared out the window instead of meeting her gaze. Gemini

"Yeah," Dean muttered, blinking away the memories that presented unbidden. "So, you guys get to meet Bobby. If you're all ready, we can hit the road."

Gemini and Iglesia looked excited, although Solairis groaned.

"If we have to," she muttered.

Dean rolled his eyes at this, urging, "Come on."

Dean paid the tab while the kids went to the bathroom. They lined up beside the Impala, Castiel speaking to the brothers quietly before Sam spoke up.

"Hey, Cas? Maybe this is weird, but, they have wings. Could you, yknow, show them yours?" Sam suggested, and added, addressing the kids, his eyes on Solairis while he spoke, "If that would make you feel any better."

Solairis grunted noncommittaly, although Gemini and Iglesia nodded, with amazed smiles.

"I suppose." The angel replied, gesturing for the group to follow him as he walked away towards the side of the diner, into an alley between it and the next building.

"So as not to unduly make a spectacle," Castiel explained briefly. The three of them watched, open-mouthed and wide eyed as shadow forms of great dark wings spread from his back, then slowly solidified into fully feathered limbs. He flared them once, then retracted them, letting them shift away into shadows then again to nothingness.

"How do you do that?!" Gemini exclaimed.

"My wings are not of corporeal form typically. Their primary use, for flight, functions best in another plane of reality. I can travel anywhere so quickly humans cannot perceive the motion." Castiel explained.

"Man. I wish ours could do that. Like, go away, whenever we wanted. And yknow, teleporting wouldn't be so bad either," Gemini grinned at Solairis, who nodded.

"We have to hide ours in public. To stay safe." She pulled off her coat, revealing the tawny feathers of her own wingspan, which as she stretched them out, reached a full twelve feet.

It was the brothers' turn to gape. "That's amazing," Sam murmured, earning a look from Dean, and a glare from Solairis.

"Some good they do us when having them would get us killed." She shook her head.

"That's what we're trying to help you with." Dean put up his hands again. "If we find you someone to stay with."

"Fine. Say we do stay with this Bobby person," Solairis griped. "What then?"

"You get the chance to grow up. Normal. Or normal as it gets, for kids with wings." Dean said. "I mean, if we could help you find your real families, we'd try, but I have no freaking idea where to start."

"Well," Sam mused, "Maybe we could try to get Charlie to see about records for the institute. She might find something."

"Yes," Castiel interjected. "I might be of help as well. I could attempt to locate them as well. I have contacts who might be able to speak to souls in Heaven, as well as angels that ran the original assignment. Perhaps one of them will have information.."

Iglesia gaped, tears starting to fall. Gemini looked shell-shocked, but Solairis just stood, staring stonily at the ground.

"I know it would not make up for my shortcomings," Castiel added quietly, "But perhaps it would help. It would be at your discretion what to do with the information should I find relatives."

"Oh my god, yes," Iglesia murmured, throwing her arms around the angel's waist. He returned her hug awkwardly.

"There are no garauntees," Castiel cautioned, "But I will see."

"Alright then," Dean said. "Let's get going."

The kids piled in, Solairis making a face as she got in the back seat on the driver's side again.

"Woo, here we go," she muttered as they pulled away.

….Solairis…..

I shifted uncomfortably in the seat. According to the clock in the dash, which I could just see by craning my neck over the front of the seat, we had been riding for three hours. It was a few dozen songs into what turned out to be Dean's repository of classic rock tapes, which Gemini had decided he liked.

He was humming along to some song that Dean said was by a band called AC/DC, making up the nonsense words as he went along. I cringed as he crowed out the words "Thunderstruuuuuuuccckkk!" as a particularly noisy song ended.

Dean was laughing, although Iglesia beside me looked equally, if not more miserable than I was. She had stuffed her fingers in her ears. Bat senses. Sometimes around Gemini, who loved to be noisy, it was tantamount to torture.

"Gemini," I snapped in the momentary silence when the song ended. "Tone it down a little. Leez can hear mosquitos. Think of her poor ears."

"Yeah, and yknow, the rest of us." Sam added turning his head over his shoulder to speak to us with a wry grin.

"Okay, okay," Gemini grumbled. "It's just awesome music."

"Awesome, alright," I muttered, staring out the window.

Dean and Iglesia cracked up at this. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey, Dean," Sam suggested. "What about some radio?"

I sighed as he changed it to radio, which Sam mercifully settled on something a little quieter. This one opened to acoustic guitar, which I welcomed with the chance for the break from pounding electric guitar.

"I close my eyes…" The words began through the soft fluctuations of guitar. I sighed with relief, deciding I actually liked this particular song. It sounded more like country or something than…was it still rock? I wondered, my aching head finally shifting to a heaviness.

Iglesia looked at me for a moment. "Riss you look exhausted. Did you sleep at all last night?"

I thought about it, really thought, and realized I hadn't. We'd spent the entire night circling and worrying. Sleep had been the farthest thing from my mind while Iglesia was with the brothers.

I shrugged. "Dunno."

"Riss. Really. We're fine. I slept pretty good, for what it's worth."

"You…you went to sleep while they were standing there around you?" I hissed, the heaviness of my eyes beginning to take over.

"Yeah. They gave me a sleeping bag. Yknow, after they let me eat all their food."

I groaned internally. "Well, that's fine I guess you couldn't help it, but I'm still not completely—" I began, but Gemini interrupted, with a distinctly hurt look on his face.

"Riss. I'm as old as you are. I know the drill. You can chill out, I'll wake you up the minute anything seems weird, although to be honest, they're pretty cool."

"You guys are gonna be the death of me," I grumbled, stifling a yawn. "Fine. Gemini, if you're still OK….you watch for now. Then you Leez." I mumbled, my eyelids sinking closed as my head began to loll to the side. I was officially spent. The song was short, but the next one that came on was almost equally soft. Dean made some sort of dissatisfied noise under his breath about it being all ballads, which prompted Gemini to mutter in agreement, but it got lost somewhere in the darkness of my thoughts as sleep finally, mercifully came. I hadn't realized it but more of the headache was from sleep deprivation than from the music.

I came conscious to the distinctive feeling of mutant elbow in my side. I grumbled something, batting my hands as if to get rid of the hissed, "Riss, Riss"-es that were invading my ears.

"What? God I'm finally—" I murmured, shaking myself awake. I realized where we were again and mentally berated myself for falling asleep. How was I that careless?

"So's everybody awake?" Dean was asking from the driver's seat, head turned over his shoulder to address us. I groaned, nodding. "Yeah, now what?"

"Hey, Solairis, no need for all that," he tsked. "We're making a pit stop is all. Figured you guys might want to hit the can, get something to eat, whatever, before we head on through Illinois."

"Oh..." I said dumbly, my rebuttals dying in my throat. The past day had really been too much, too fast, too…That train of thought ended quickly as I looked at Iglesia and Gemini who were waiting expectantly for me to say something. "OK, I guess…"

We got out and headed into the gas station. Iglesia and I took turns in the one stall bathroom before heading to the cooler where there were sandwiches and other food. I picked up a wrap and a soda and some chips. Iglesia grabbed a bag of trail mix and a vegetable dip tray. Gemini, not surprisingly, given his proclivity for junk, got a fistful of Snickers and a large bag of Doritos. I rolled my eyes, muttering to him, "At least get something passable for food, OK?"

"Fine." He replied, selecting a package of beef jerky, at which I relented. He and Iglesia then went and began hoarding sodas from the cooler. I rolled my eyes as the brothers motioned them to the counter.

Dean met our food selections with a laugh. "Can't say I'd have chosen much different," he muttered.

"Whatever," I jibed, although in spite of myself, I was beginning to get a different feeling from him. One…and I hated myself for it, I really did, but this one was of honesty. I almost squirmed at the realization.

He and Sam rang up their food and then we were back out to the car, getting in where we ate. Dean passed around an empty grocery bag, adamantly stating, "All the trash goes in this, got it?"

I laughed when Gemini sighed dramatically. Iglesia nodded happily, glad to have somewhere to stash the garbage. We ate quickly and were back out on the road again in short order.

The sun was setting, and I found myself growing tired again. The few hours before was not nearly enough. This time Gemini was tired as well, and wound up leaning on Iglesia, who happily remained in place. She didn't mind; none of us did, actually. Maybe it was the nesting instinct from our recombinant genes, or maybe it was the comfort of knowing the others were there. Conscious of the likelihood I'd automatically flop over soon, our combined weight a bit much for her, I leaned the other way. The window vibrated against my skull, drawing me out of a shallow dose, but I grit my teeth and stubbornly insisted to myself that I'd fall asleep anyway. I did, although I awoke no more than an hour or so later to the protests of every muscle in my neck and a painful numbness on one side of my face. I sat up, groaning.

"Yknow sleeping against the window probably isn't the greatest," Sam observed over his shoulder. "Here…" He passed me something, his jacket, I realized, which I balled up and stuffed under my ear against the corner of the seat and the doorframe. It sufficiently cushioned the vibration of the car and eased the stiffness. I mumbled a "Thanks," under my breath as my eyes slid closed again.

I awoke briefly some hours later, around midnight, when they stopped at another gas station.

"Unless you need something we're not getting out here," Dean shrugged. "Just getting gas."

"Yeah, and I was gonna drive some, remember?" Sam added, giving Dean a look. "Yeah, sure…" he said rolling his eyes.

I didn't bother expending any particular effort to stay awake for the rest of their conversation. I heard Iglesia beside me, who was right at home being awake nights, laugh and carry on with Sam some while Dean pumped gas but that faded quickly to the periphery of my attention as sleep enveloped me again. I grudgingly acknowledged if they had wanted to hurt us, they'd have much more easily done so long ago.

As alien an idea as it was, it was somehow nice. Somebody besides me cared. And weren't asking for anything else. And…the thought bloomed as I slipped away. It was…actually OK.


	13. Chapter 13

My eyes peeled open as the first glint of sun started to peek past the rolling hillsides. We pulled off the freeway, skirting around what the signs indicated was Sioux Falls, through the country. Iglesia and Gemini were both out, so I let them sleep. Dean and Sam were silent besides the radio tuned to news at a low volume, so I remained quiet not to disturb the We slowed, turning down a long dirt path, gravel crunching under the tires as we approached an old house, which had an arch reading 'Auto.'

Dean cut the engine and climbed out while Sam turned around in his seat and announced, "Hey, guys, so we're here. If you wanna get out…"

Iglesia and Gemini stirred to life. We got out, and I handed Sam back his jacket, stretching out my stiff joints when I stood. I wanted badly to stretch my wings as well, which had cramped up impossibly on the long ride, but I was uncertain. I was about to ask Sam if he thought it was an OK idea when the door to the house swung open, a heavy-set older man striding out who clapped Dean on the shoulder, declaring in an affectionate tone, "Well look what the cat dragged in! You idjits. What'd you do, drive all night?"

"Hey Bobby," Dean returned, grinning.

"Well, idjits and company, from the look of it," Bobby added, pulling off his ball cap to scratch his head.

"So. Who all are you?" He asked, going down the steps to approach us across the patchy grass in the yard.

My face set and my heart raced. They seemed to think he was OK, but… "I'm Solairis. They're Gemini and Iglesia," I declared, jerking a thumb in their respective directions.

"Uhm, hi," Iglesia offered with a sheepish smile.

"Yeah, hey," Gemini shrugged. "So you're Bobby?"

"Yeah. These boys said they found you in Ohio…and you're…." He made a face. "Not completely human."

"Not human?" I scoffed, striding forward to face him down. He didn't look half as intimidating as an erase, and I knew I could deal with him if I had to, but… I noticed the uncertain looks Sam and Dean exchanged. Would I have to? I found that I didn't actually want to…

"We're _more_ than human, thanks. I may not know who you are or anything but they said you were supposedly OK. But I'm not taking that for granted, got that?" I snapped.

"Well leave it to me to put my foot in my mouth," He muttered. "You've sure got some attitude, you're tough, I'll give you that."

Sam laughed awkwardly, clearing at this. "Yeah, so, uh, there's that."

"Don't mind her." Iglesia approached him now, and I was torn between calling her back to get behind me and the sinking feeling I'd had before when she had told Gemini not to intervene when I was meeting the brothers. The sinking feeling won out. She was juding for herself, and I couldn't stop her, I realized.

"She's nervous. And we've had a really crappy life, to be honest. You're both kind of right, we're mutant. I have wings, so do they." She smiled now, and I saw the alarm in his face. His hand went in his pocket. Panic mounting, I gave a yell.

"Hey! You don't touch her—" I rushed towards him, feeling a hand on my shoulder. Sam was holding onto me—I tried to jerk away, which he didn't try to prevent, but his voice in my ear made me stop.

"Bobby, I know she looks kinda vampire-y, but she's fine. They're all fine. Cas verified it."

"I believe you. So, Iglesia, is it? What are you exactly?"

"I'm part bat. Fruit bat. Not vampire bat. Ew. And they're part bird." She supplied nonchalantly.

"So you have uh, fangs," Bobby observed as if it was really that out there, which to him it must have been, but…it was strange to see someone say it without freaking.

"Yeah, and we all have wings." She said, before adding, "And we're really tired, from the car ride, and being all cooped up. If nobody around here would freak out, it would be nice if we could open our wings for a few minutes. We get stiff just like anybody else does."

She just…told him that? I found my jaw had fallen open while I tried to make sensible words, shaking my head as if it would clear my mind, but he responded before I could come up with what the heck to say to that.

"Yeah, I don't see why not," he shrugged.

Iglesia had her windbeaker off and her wings open, and I felt the rising urge to run away, embarrassment and panic at war as if it was going to be a disaster. Someone would run towards us, someone would attack, someone would—

"Wow…" Bobby's eyes were a little wide at the sight of her bat wings stretched fully open, but somehow he was just standing there…. And then Gemini was unzipping his coat too, shaking out his feathers that were rumpled.

At this point, all I could do was stare.

"I—I don't—" I mumbled, but Iglesia was walking towards me. She tugged me by the wrist, her expression hopeful. "Riss I know it's hard, but…if he's gonna let us live with him he deserves to know what we have in us, don't you think?"

"I…." The words died in my throat. I swallowed hard, following suit. I didn't know Iglesia to let something go when she had her mind set to it and…the rest of my little family was doing this, so… I pushed back the doubts and bit my lip as I unzipped my coat. My wings opened slowly, the air cool without my coat on over my sweatshirt.

"No relation to angels, though?" Bobby asked, a question that seemed as much directed to us as it was to the brothers.

"No." I said, swallowing hard. "We're part bird. And…that's it. Look, we didn't ask to be like this. We were…made. I don't know what you want, but—"

"I don't want anything," Bobby said, putting up his hands as if in a gesture of surrender. "They just told me they found you guys is all, and I'm just here to help however I can. These idjits have a tendency of getting themselves in over their heads. I get the feelin' this is gonna take a while, so why don't we go in and have some breakfast? I bet you're all starving."

I nodded reluctantly, following the rest of our group in the farmhouse, into the kitchen, where he set about making eggs and bacon and coffee. I sat at the table, uncomfortable in my seat as I picked at a spot on the wood of the table with my fingernails.

"Look, I'll level with ya, if that will help," Bobby said over the eggs and bacon when they were finished. "If you need somewhere to stay I can give you that, but…I'm not telling you where to go or anything. You're human, you're not our concern so to speak, if you're worried about the fact me 'n the boys are hunters. So if you need help, I'll give it to ya, but it's not some sort of trick, OK? I get the feelin' you had a pretty rough time of it, but things can be different from here on out if you're willing to work with me on it."

"You don't mean that," I muttered, staring at my eggs that I hadn't touched. I made a face at Gemini who was currently sneaking a hand over to try to steal my bacon. "Nobody means that, nobody…" my voice cracked and I felt my face get hot. "Nobody does anything for us. So I—I don't know how to take this." I can't do this, I can't, everything inside me screamed. I wanted to run. I wanted to fly, I wanted to get away, but something was pinning me to my seat, and it was Gemini and Iglesia's stares.

"Well, you don't have to decide right now," Bobby offered. "Just…spend the night, at least. There's plenty of room upstairs, an' no reason you can't unless you don't want to."

I fought back the tears that burned in my eyes as I nodded, my voice embarrassingly shaky as I managed to say, "Deal."

….

Gemini spent the afternoon looking at all the stuff and being explained to over and over he could not touch any of it. He reluctantly nodded, coming back to where I'd taken up a spot on the couch, gushing excitedly about what he'd found. I nodded dumbly and played along. I didn't care, couldn't care, at the moment, if I was entirely honest with myself. We were with the brothers, he was safe. Iglesia was following them around most of the morning. I just sat and watched Bobby putter about the kitchen, cleaning up, then in and out of what Gemini had declared to be a study with different books.

At some point Dean took pity on me and turned on the TV, which I sat around pretending to watch with Iglesia, who joined me. Lunch was tense, and over dinner with burgers, the brothers mentioned spending a few nights. I nodded quietly, trying to hold in whatever it was that kept demanding to burst out.

It wasn't until late that night when I was in an unfamiliar bed, curled up that it came out. Tears poured, hot down my face, refusing to stop and my breathing turned into ragged sobs. I tried to muffle them but they wouldn't stop, and burying my face in the pillow made the room feel all the more suffocating.

Footsteps came up the hall, and I curled up, wishing I could disappear. Why couldn't being mutant have come with additional superpowers? The door opened, and Iglesia was there, and so was Gemini. They came and sat down beside their hugs enveloping me. And still I sobbed.

"Riss it's OK," Iglesia whispered. "We're here," Gemini added. "And we aren't going anywhere."

I nodded, trying to claw away the tears. They still didn't stop, but it was somehow a little more bearable with them there. Eventually they curled up, all of us in my bed, and I fell asleep with Gemini and Iglesia on either side of me.

In the morning, I woke up to footsteps and concerned voices in the hall. I didn't bother opening my eyes, preferring to stay in the quiet semi-darkness of the room. Reality was a little complicated for my tastes, but right here was comfortable.

"Hey, kids," Bobby called. I heard him speak to Dean in the hall, "Have you seen them?"

"No," Dean replied, "Gemini isn't in his room, I was gonna wake him up—"

The door opened again. I chanced a peek to see Bobby, and Dean behind him framed in it.

"Oh," Bobby murmured. "Well, there they are. I guess they aren't used to being apart at all…"

Dean shook his head. "Think we should let 'em sleep?"

"Yeah, give 'em a couple hours," Bobby replied. "It's early yet. I'll save 'em some breakfast if you two idjits don't eat it all."


	14. Chapter 14

They did end up saving us some breakfast. Sam warmed up omletes for us in the microwave while Leez, Gemini and I sat, eating quietly.

Dean spoke up from the next room. "When's the last time you guys had clean clothes?" he asked.

"Ack—" I nearly choked on the egg I was eating upon hearing that.

"Uh, never?" Gemini cracked a grin. "I mean I'm not too picky, but…jeans without mud stains on top of grass stains on top of holes would be nice."

"That's not a problem," Sam chuckled. "Look, we'll take you into town as soon as you're done eating."

I couldn't believe my eyes when we went into the department store. The brothers kept telling me it was just a Walmart, but…holy crap. It was huge, and Sam kept insisting to get whatever I wanted. I turned slowly in large, dizzy circles while Iglesia flitted around grabbing this and that and, well, everything. A saleswoman eventually stepped in, clearing her throat awkwardly when Iglesia nearly ran the cart into a display. "May I help you?" She asked.

"Uh…" For the second time that morning, I lost my voice again but Iglesia spoke up.

"Yeah, as a matter of fact, we lost all our clothes when our house got burned down, so we need some of everything. My sister's a little overwhelmed right now." She said brightly.

"Oh. You poor dears. Let me help…"

And help, she did. By the time Sam took us back to meet up with Dean at the register, the cart was overflowing. Boots, socks, sneakers, coats, sweaters, jeans, tshirts…. I purposely avoided looking at the price on the monitor when they finished ringing us up.

I had mumbled protests but Dean had waved me away. "Nope. You've never had squat, so you don't get to start saying what you need now."

I felt vaguely insulted and huffed at that, and jabbed an elbow at Iglesia when she giggled.

"Come on," Gemini grinned, "Riss. Just…relax."

"Fine." I snapped.

When we arrived back at Bobby's we hauled our new clothing up stairs and took turns taking a shower. I found myself staring slack-jawed at my reflection in the bathroom mirror in spite of my best efforts not to. I was still obviously a teenage angel-looking thing with ragged wavy auburn hair, but for once I looked, and felt almost clean. And honestly that was something I found myself hoping I could get used to. When I left the bathroom, tossing my wet towel in the hamper at the end of the hall, Iglesia stopped dead when she saw me.

"Riss?" she asked haltingly.

"Yeah, Leez? What is it?"

"You look…well, happy," she said.

"Eh, I dunno. Maybe it's all the food they keep shoving at us." I muttered. She grinned, her toothy grin that had gotten us into all this trouble, and for once all I could do was laugh.

Maybe…_happy_…was something we could deal with…

…

The days passed slowly. After a week, the boys left to go hunt what they explained to be Rugaru in Minnesota.

Gemini was very interested, and kept pestering Bobby about it until he shoved a book into his hands, saying, "See for yourself."

Gemini had practically crumpled in place, a miserable look in his eyes as he muttered, "I can't."

"What're you talking bout, son?" Bobby asked, confusion in his voice.

"I can't read, sir," Gemini replied quietly, shame in his voice.

"Can't read? Well I don't know why I expected you to be able to. Sorry son. But we can fix that. Can you two read either?" Bobby asked, turning to Iglesia and I where we sat watching TV across the room.

Iglesia just shook her head, while I shrugged. "A little…"

"Well. Like I said, we're fixing that. Right now."

He disappeared up the stairs for a few minutes, the sound of stairs to the attic creaking. He came back down a few minutes later, covered in dust, carrying an ancient-looking box that was similarly coated in dust.

"What's that?" I asked, coughing as I fanned away some of the dust.

"This is just some of the stuff the boys had when they were younger," he shrugged. "I mean it's probably a little bit kiddish for you, but…you gotta start somewhere, an I sure as hell am not starting you out with Malleus Maleficarum."

"Oh…" Gemini said slowly. "Well…I guess we gotta start somewhere." He began to rummage as Bobby opened the box, producing a faded picture book, the front of which read 'The Hungry Cate…' something.

I reached in next, pulling out a picture book, that I handed to Iglesia. "Maybe..try that?" I suggested halfheartedly. Bobby gave me thin chapter book that he pulled from the box.

"Maybe you try that, Solairis."

"Oh…OK…" I murmured, turning it over. "The…Hardie…Boys?" I asked.

"Yeah. That was one of Sam's favorite books."

"Oh…cool."

….

I started out helping Iglesia and Gemini with letters, which I only knew because the one sympathetic nurse had taught me the little reading I was capable of while I was in isolation. From there, I left them to sound out words with the occasional assistance of an app on the Ipad Sam had left for us. We occasionally fought over it pettily, but Bobby didn't seem to mind…at least, not too much.

"Kids!" He'd yell, and we'd snap to attention.

"Sorry sir," Gemini would say humbly and I'd just scoff.

"Yeah, sorry," I'd quip, while Iglesia just melted into the background, a nervous smile on her face.

One day, I came downstairs to see Iglesia poring over a large book on the sofa, it nestled in her lap. Bobby was beside her, prompting and correcting what I supposed were mistakes, although she read so well, I found myself standing there, staring open-mouthed.

Bobby laughed. "Why don't you come on over here? There's room for one more. Your sister's a damn good reader. She's gonna be better than me before you know it."

I laughed and did as asked, although when I sat down, I realized something strange about the book. It had passages in English, but then another language under it.

"Bobby? What's with this book?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've been wondering," Iglesia added quietly.

"Well, see, that part's in Latin…" Bobby said.

"Latin?" Iglesia asked.

"Yeah. I wouldn't worry about that too much right now, although—"

"So what, is this the same word?" She asked, pointing to a funny 'word' below the English version.

"Not exactly. Latin's not the same as English…" Bobby began, launching into a spiel on the syntax of foreign languages that lost me somewhere around "English…"

He translated a few sentences, encouraging Iglesia to repeat after him, while I barely managed to sound out the longer words in English in my head. And somehow, Iglesia was able to repeat after him…

When we got up, my head was spinning, but Iglesia was grinning.

"Riss, I think I know what I want to do," she said.

"What?" I asked.

"Research. I—I'm actually good at it, Riss."

"That's awesome…" I said warmly.

"I can't fight like you can, but I can read. And…Don't tell Bobby, but Gemini wants to be a hunter someday. I can be the researcher." She grinned again, and I laughed. "OK. I won't."

….

Gemini, never much of one to keep his mouth shut for long, ended up spilling to Dean one weekend that the brothers were back.

Dean scoffed and begun to go on a tirade about just how bad an idea it was, when Bobby spoke up.

"Y'know boys, learning a few skills might not be a bad idea."

"Bobby—" Dean protested, but Sam nodded, looking thoughtful. "He should at least learn to shoot. They all should."

"Fine," Dean muttered reluctantly.

So that was how after lunch one day, we wound up facing the line of targets at the rear of the property, a .44 in my hands.

Sam had given me earplugs, which I fidgeted with until Dean came up, showing me how to hold the gun. He loosed a round, showing me where to put my fingers, and put it in my hands. I pointed it at the ground for a moment as I got the feel for it, then raised it, aiming at the target in front of me.

"That's it. Elbows bent, keep your feet shoulder width apart, and you can bend your knees a little bit. Now, breathe in, and real easy—"

I squeezed the trigger with my forefinger like he'd said, loosing a round into the target. It hit the second ring from the center, a little blot of torn paper on the target.

"Hmm, not bad for a first try," Dean grinned down at me. "Do it again."

I did. First that afternoon, then the next. Soon part of our daily routine past reading and learning to do math included target practice. Since Bobby lived in the middle of verifiable nowhere, we were able to fly without being seen. Gemini had taken up spotting different models of car in the scrapyard from the air, while Iglesia preferred flying to roost in old trees around the edges of the property. Personally, I favored shooting and flying high above the clouds at daybreak, seeing the sun come up.

Months passed like this, and before I knew it, we were comfortable and settled in a situation I had never imagined possible.

I began to forget that I had ever disliked them, and we laughed offhandedly about that crazy, but thank-god-we-did time we had run into them. It had been months, months of bliss that I had never known before. I had almost forgotten the brothers' long-ago promise of looking into our possible family.

Then one weekend, Sam and Dean showed up, looking particularly grim, considering they didn't have any injuries or other signs of having just gotten back from a particularly bad hunt.

Bobby brought them in, and we had supper, but they were uncharacteristically quiet throughout, like there was…some sort of secret.

After supper we went to the living room where Gemini turned on an old movie. We all watched it, although the tension seemed to be rubbing off on us too, because Iglesia and Gemini were quieter than usual.

When it was over, Bobby spoke up

"Riss? Gemini, Leez? You all listening?" Bobby asked. "We've got something to talk about," Dean said, getting up and beginning to pace the floor like something was under his skin eating at him, and Sam was grim-faced, shifting uncomfortably where he sat in the chair across from us.

"Yeah, so what is it?"

"Remember we said we were gonna look into your family?" Dean asked, stopping pacing in front of us.

"Yeah…what about it?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even. It was harder than I'd hoped.

"Well…we found out, they, uh…" he broke off clearing his throat.

"Cas and Charlie helped. They found some stuff, but I'm afraid it wasn't good," Bobby cut in.

"Oh?" Iglesia asked quietly.

"Yeah. The demons years ago, from what we found, killed them. I'm sorry, guys. We really are, we wish we could've had better news." Sam said.

I didn't know what to say. The breath seemed to be sucked out of my lungs, until I felt Iglesia squeezing my hand.

I frowned, looking around the living room at our improbable little group. The faces I saw were concerned and caring faces, and realized finally, something that I hadn't even known I'd wanted was there. I had a family, one that was right here, and all six of us would fight off the entire world to stay together if we had to.


End file.
